Peace was something I suppose I forgot how quiet it could be

Peaceful, relaxing and just being, not too bad but as a newly found out jet setter frequently running from here to there it was a wee bit boring today. Although, I must admit recuperative as well, you see
I guess I forgot to mention that after we ate out yesterday it had a just awful affect on my stomach and I became physically ill.

So I quickly, yesterday took advantage of the leftover chicken carcass, and made my excellent homemade chicken soup in my pressure cooker, the cure for whatever ails ya.
With my arsenal of soup and club soda for the cure by this afternoon I was my old self again, bellyache gone.

Oddly enough with all those yucks going on it apparently brought out my creative being for haute cuisine and so I did myself proud by presenting a dinner with angel hair pasta and pesto sauce (homemade), and from scratch my own rendition of *Caesar dressing and *croutons both made from scratch and lite for a Caesar salad; but of course!
Cling peaches a la naturale for dessert, a lovely healthy meal.

Pleasantly our eldest son called to today, and it is always a joy to hear from him, and to know he is happy and healthy!
And working hard and playing hard too.

* Caesar Dressing:
• Recipe for no oil no egg no anchovy dressing! Wisk all the below ingredients together in any order
• Three tablespoons of lite mayo
• One and a half tablespoons of lemon juice
• One and a half tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
• Kraft lite parmesan/ Romano two tablespoons
• Black pepper to taste ( I always add more than most do)
• Garlic powder, no salt (hefty) dose ( which I prefer) or to taste

*Homemade croutons:
• Preheat oven to 250
• Old dry bakery bread any type would do and then cut into cubes
• Toss with extra virgin olive oil, parmesan, dried rosemary, and dried basil
• Spread out flat on an oil sprayed cookie sheet
• Place in 250 degree oven for ten minutes

I decided to share these healthful ideas with my readership.
Both items above go over Romaine lettuce and red sliced onions toss and you are done! Or add in grilled chicken or shrimp for a complete meal, enjoy!

PS that Caesar dressing is totally my creation not from anyone else so it is my gift to you!
I bet that simple crouton one is a conglomeration of many that I have used over the years from many others' recipes and creators.

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

And that's the way it is!

Truer words were never said, and the man that we all remember for his honesty, rationale and integrity was the one who stated so completely and concisely in that short sentence how he works, worked. “And that's the way it is,” I bet almost anyone could tell you who that quote belonged to; of course, Walter Cronkite, that is anyone who grew up watching him, which I did. He was there to comfort the nation in the best of times and the worst of times, and he has moved on now at age 92, his light has been extinguished just yesterday. But this is someone no one will ever forget, and any journalist worth his or her grain of salt will continue to strive to attain his quality in reporting what we all know should be the truisms of facts with warmth, and compassion. We have seen in many recent obituary type reports what a wonderful person he was in his personal life as well and that he had it all, a long time happy marriage and three wonderful children. He also knew how to relax while sailing, and partying. He was a man that had balance in his life. Today we say that you should work hard and play hard; well he actually did it before it was fashionable, and he did it with grace and poise. Goodnight forever to the most trusted man in the world.

Onward… today we went to two of those freebie events that I mentioned yesterday, one at our new event and conference center, the first time we had been there, I believe that it may be large enough to support a three ring circus, but the garden show that they displayed took up only a mere corner of the entire building, in a small room. And so my complete critique of this newest venue would be unfair to say without all the information. I must say though I was impressed with the fact that now they do have a site that shows the calendar of events that they are offering, month by month, and that is new, and very useful. We moved on to an outdoor café that we had wanted to try right in the heart of River City, AKA Punta Gorda, but alas their tables were full by hubby’s report from when he got out to check. I suppose Saturdays are not such a good day to try a very small café with only six to eight tables.

All was not lost our second venture for the day was good old faithful, Fisherman’s Village today they were having both a home and art show.
And they also have many restaurants to choose from for lunch, and so after we walked, actually I rode hubby walked the length of their mall looking at all the venders we decided to eat at the restaurant at the end on the water view side, which we had eaten at before. But once we found a table and ordered our drinks we noticed that all their prices went up, uh oh! It had been two years apparently since we had been there; at least that is when they changed these new to us menus the server said. I suggested that we pay for our iced tea and coffee and leave, but hubby said no. I had just enough cash for a less expensive place, but hubby said I guess we will have to use the debit card, which these days I really prefer not to, oh well.

Any-who we had lunch, paid the bill, and went on our merry ways.
Hubby suggested taking a ride over to the park nearby but just to drive past not get out it was over 90 degrees, and neither of us were interested in that!
But it was nice at the park this one also has a wildlife center that we had been to many a time, it is free, but asks for donations. We just drove by.
Next I asked hubby to stop by the historic village where my writer’s group has a building, an old house once used by an attorney that actually was on the corner in my neck of the woods not far from my home.
That is what the village is comprised of hundred year old homes that had been moved there, and revamped to their initial vitality. It to date only comprises of three such homes the last being still renovated at this time, but looking very fine with new landscaping.
And at last we went to our home.
Our safety our comfort our place to relax, and not feel put upon or rushed by the world, our sanctuary.
Isn’t that what we all think of when we think of home?

And that’s the way it is!
On that note of realization I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Depressed?

Well, that was a refreshing mistake that I hadn't done in quite some time. I hit the enter key and published my title and nothing else, which tonight is somewhat of a downer since I entitled tonight’s Blog: “Depressed?”

But doing what I did made me giggle and that is good!
As long as we can all find our funny bone, even if it is buried deep within then we still have a glimmer of hope.

Today was depressing due to the reality of more bills, and more negotiating to keep our lives in an ability to create balance and not to become hermits with the fear of living a life in a positive way without guilt or shame.
What a mouthful, but seriously on one hand we have all these bills that must be paid, but not to the detriment of living life in a positive way, which means going out amongst the world to enjoy what it has to offer.

Other things that threw me off was the fact that I had called my sister-in-law yesterday to check on my mother-in-law (who is 88 years old), to see how her, Mom’s doctor visits went. The only reason I called her was because Mom wasn’t home. And my nephew of 27 answered and told her that I was on the phone and for some reason asked me my phone number (she has it) so she could call back in a few minutes and that was yesterday! So today I tried calling both of them back and got Mom’s machine and left a message since she was not there, and tried sis and there was no answer there either; hope they are all right. I did try a few times, but the news tonight said the weather there in PA is really bad with hail and everything, so it could be a weather problem with the phones? Odd, I think.
Who knows…?

Then my cousins that I called the last minute, earlier today really, to ask if they would be interested in going to the home and art shows here tomorrow, which are free but usually entertaining and one is indoors in our new event center that I have not been in yet and the other is in the well protected, Fisherman’s Village. We usually do lunch, but they were already spoken for, my bad, too short notice.
But hubby and I will venture out for this form of low cost depression busting…that’s what I am talking about!
Depression can kill you, and we are all at risk in these nasty times.
So if you don’t mind me saying you should do your part to foil this sneaky visitor.

On that upbeat note I did utilize our swimming pool for the last two days and it was glorious! I had forgotten how good it feels to be weightless and the water temp was just right too about the same as the morning air, so no shock to my system. I must use and repeat as often as possible.

My hubby is on a garden weeding jag and all I must say is that is showing how lovely they really can be with just a little TLC.

See harmless and free to make one happy, sometimes it is just the little things that can do the trick!

On that well placed ending to my tonight rant I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Email type of day...

Back and forth with emails to different people most of the day, and I found out that I have a serious problem ... when someone asks me a question I have this annoying habit of thinking they want to know every single detail, and so I have a nasty habit of answering in essay form! Seriously, this is my downfall in life, and not only do I do it in print but I also do it in most all of my conversations!

My other flaw, which I have so many, but this one is that I appear to be what psychologists and others in the mental health field might consider me to be a passive/ aggressive, huh? Yep, you try to act meek and calm when in an unfriendly situation, but then you get in a person’s face with a definite opinion to the contrary! And can literarily take your own life in your hands with the lack of self control.
Nah… I was kidding!
But going through the change of life was almost that way.
Some very nice women that I have met over the years went to hell and back during that time in their lives. Emotions were rampant, but with me it was like this PMS, Peri-Menopause, and then the grand finale…Menopause! And I was thrilled it was over. Some have been known to want to commit murder during this time in their lives, and others had a feeling of hopelessness and desperation to end it all, scary!

Fortunately, when I was in that period, excuse the pun, in my life I would yell or cry easily, and quit a whole lot of stuff that would make me unhappy, crazy! Yep, but beneficial too, deciding on streamlining your life whether all there or not; it worked at the time.
And now that I am somewhat sane, and I use the term loosely, once again I have adjusted my life in recent years also to what works for me and what doesn’t.
Not so crazy after all, huh? Besides with severe dry eyes I can no longer shed any tears!
Yes, we must all know that when we make adult decisions responsibility goes along with those decisions, and so caution in making them is mandatory.

And I do believe that is called judgment.
Today, I suppose I may have gotten slightly off track with those emails that I returned with rehashing old business with my women cousins.

And yet when I received an email from our female Canadian neighbor I was short to the point and exacting, concise if you will, with my return email and non expansive since I felt no necessity to elaborate, odd for me. I suppose that is called: self control! Wow what a concept?

Being of that certain age and finding me with less emotional ways of handling things is almost a sad end to an era. And that is not to say that I don’t have my moments, of course not I have written about many of those embarrassing times right here in print on this Blog, and I have only been doing this a little over a year, spilling my heart, opinions and words of wisdom out. It is a wonderful outlet for anyone who needs to express themselves in this medium, and I feel so good about my loyalty to this project that is similar to a diary or journal. We all should look inside ourselves at times and try to objectively decide where our weaknesses and strengths lie.
I believe that writing down anything in your life that you feel you need enlightenment on may help put it into better perspective. And if you have a trusted ally to confer with that might be able to give you an objective opinion then you got your problem solving down to a science. And in these hard times it also helps in taking out the emotional factors in looking at whatever the trouble/problem is with just the facts, only the facts please, and I betcha that it will work for you too! Nothing to lose and it is a free trial offer.

Now on that proposal of consideration in deciding how to handle these trials of life I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Boy what a life... out in the world again!

Knowing that what you do daily has either a positive or negative affect on your psyche I have been making a concerted effort to create encouraging upbeat day by day ideas to promote that.
Today, when the newspaper arrived it was loaded with coupons as well as its usual concise consistent informative prose.

We have been receiving a FREE paper live and in person for the last few days due to me filling out one of those surveys online, that I know you know that I said that I hate, oh well…it’s for two whole FREE weeks!

Any-who, it was those coupons that promoted our venturing out today. One was for my haircut place, three dollars off, and the other one that we used was for a restaurant at the mall that was a, buy one get one free, meal deal! And so our itinerary was set for the day. And I figured while there why not see if any of the stores are hiring, and I did receive two leads, but not that solid, who knows what may come of them.

I also asked my hubby to go to the Sears store too, and see if we could find out why our Kenmore dryer timer dial has been on occasion running backwards, but they no longer have an in store service center, bummer! But they still are online, and so we will use that.

You noticed I said the dial was running backwards, hmm now who besides me thinks that is a little bit weird? But that’s not all of it there has been another strange occurrence or darn peculiar incident that happened around nine A.M. this morning, my husband was still sleeping in, and I told myself that I should leave him alone he must need the rest; oddly enough within seconds he asks me if I had turned the ceiling fan on the fast speed and put on the light? No, I really hadn’t and he knew it too! It did it all by itself, wild!
They’re back…
Yep, we were told that we might have ghosts that were awoken when the hurricane hit back in 2004, our home is now over fifty years old, built in 1958, and the house was gutted to be put back together.
Things do seem to affect the cat and the dog, Casey the cat has been known to jump for no reason like a Halloween cat without Skipper nearby for play or anything else, woo, woo, ooo. And Skipper has been known to hide in the bathroom behind the toilet, well not behind but near, and he barks during the night at nothing that we can see... scary, huh?
We were told that pets are extremely sensitive to such things.
Who knows…?

On that silly note or perhaps not so…I will bid you all a good night if you can… and count those blessings and I will too!

Gone out again...

Today we left the compound to venture into the real world to display our most personal financial information to the government agency that requests this accounting every six months, the Health Department.

Apparently, we have graduated to paying all that is requested by them when utilizing their services; we are no longer discounted on a sliding scale due to the previous person goofing in her calculations by disallowing my hubby’s disability monies. Talk about bad timing! But I suppose somehow we will manage and get through it all, life goes on and all that. I sure hope it doesn’t have a domino affect on the hospital bills that are now under advisement for discounting. Just that thought gives me shivers.

Did you all know, and I am sure you all did that money difficulties are the number one cause of stress? I guess in these hard times that is redundancy of that expression, or just so ridiculous to even mention. Most people have been experiencing this for years not unlike us, but I had put too many possibilities on the back burner since we had been basically managing.

I received a magazine in the mail today that was a freebie from the MS organization, and thank you. I looked through it and found towards the back where they had a site for jobs for the disabled and so I went to it and I am waiting to find out if it is a regional service or national. It’s called Mosaic out of Bergen County NJ, our roots started there!
The expert of the month also interested me; he was a familiar face that I had read about before, and is the brother-in–law of my toddler friends from up there. This man who is the epitome of the word courageous is a quadruple amputee due to a horrendous infection a few years ago. But he was also quite a brilliant man and professor prior to his devastating fate, and even today continues as a consultant. He makes us amateurs look even more pathetic not carrying the weight of the world as he does so elegantly. Did I mention that he is also the father of a dozen children? The site I am including is about this phenomenal person, and he is there to work and help you, what an amazing human being, he makes me speechless: http://www.mosaicjobcenter.org/expert/

I really would like to know if this job finding organization is available on a national level or perhaps they will put me in contact with someone who is in my neck of the woods so to speak. Honestly, I need to get a job to pay these bills with as little stress/pain as possible.

Please someone out there I need a legitimate job that I can do from this computer since I cannot drive anymore and one that will allow me to pay my bills off in a timely fashion.

Thanks world, I’m counting on you!

On that blatant non ashamed request I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Catching up on grunt work and responsibility

We stayed home today! Which is a rarity these days, if you have been keeping up with us lately? We jet setters needed to touch base and accomplish many very important necessaries such as: attaining clean clothes; translation: doing laundry, and organizing our financial information for our six month check in with the governmental officials: translation: the Health Department.

Fear was rampant today when we received a final notice on one of my hubby’s bills today and we both went slightly berserk since it was the hefty hospital one that demanded full payment of thousands within ten days! Wow and whoa… we checked and called the powers that be and found out that it is still pending and under advisement for another possible discounted amount and therefore there was a miss in the mails crossing and it was sent in error, since there is a hold on that account, whew!

Talk about stressful situations friends this is why escapism is not an unrealistic way of coping with this mechanism, or coping mechanism, either is correct, you know?
We have not been trying to flee the country, besides I never renewed my passport from way back when I was just a single pup, I suppose that should be kitten.
But hubby did… nah, he wouldn’t go without me.

I know we are all supposed to have them these days and I really should have gone eons ago, but most recently I guess it has been a vanity issue, I don’t look that great, in my mirror I look like C--P…at the very least not as good as I used to, and so I hate being photographed, and aren’t they expensive?
A quick surf of the net came up with prices from anywhere from around $50 to $65, is that correct? I was right, right now that isn’t in our budget and if it was I rather spend it on that escapism project anyway! Don’t you agree that would be putting those bucks to better use? Don’t driver’s licenses work for picture ID anymore, anyway?

Sunday, I read for the umpteenth time in the editorial section of the paper someone taking issue with fatty’s utilizing motorized scooters for transporting themselves as well as the handicap placards. And so I gave in my two cents with my own personal story, which proves you should not assume! It’s the old story of which came first the chicken or the egg? Some assume that obesity created the medical issues not that it possibly was the medical issues that could have anything to do with why the person got fat? Now with me it was a matter of medications and stopping smoking and then being told that those nasty pounds I put on weren’t going anywhere since my walking an hour a day was making my hips and shoulders worse. (The shoulders were due to the balance issue and switching off back and forth with the cane to maintain balance.) And since I had no monies to repair the problem I would have to stop, which in layman’s terms means if it hurts when you do this, don’t do this! Simple and concise, and I really do hope people will stop being so judgmental when they see people and not knowing the whole story. I foolishly have a tendency to explain to people who give me dirty looks or looked puzzled, since I am not paralyzed. And by the way these people who I mentioned feel those are the only ones who deserve those helpful items.
Walking is a great inexpensive exercise form, and I was a big promoter of that, since for many years I was a race walker and it was just marvelous, but stuff happens and things that you never expect happen and now all of us assumptioners ( another Tobism) get straightened out, I too assumed that exercise was the answer for everyone! Well, in recent years I have been born again with the reality of just what I can do for my medical issues, and oops, exercise is not on my dance card anywhere. Believe it; I keep looking, but nope …not there!

And so all I ask any of you is not to assume that, and that that person in the motorized chair is getting away with something, or too lazy, or just too fat to move, and that handicap placard was given to them because they weaseled it out of some doctor who did not know better and they begged to never have to walk too far ever again, because we just don’t know their personal story and I will be sure not to assume either anymore and I beg of you all not to either.

On that fateful request I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!