Finally the delivery we were waiting for arrived, and my wayward Cus contacted us with a very good reason why he hadn't...

Most people get sad from memories of people who have passed away or through their lives, which I do as well. But I also get depressed from my pets passing, and I do know that I am not alone on that one either. Even belongings from our two footed or even my four footed loves make me feel gloomy from seeing any of their property that they left behind. That sentence was odd, how on earth could they take any of it with them? Whew, strange saying that, that they left it behind like they only forgot it and may some time at a later date come back for it and pick it up!

The point I am trying to make is the fact that when I may have sounded rather cavalier about closing up the hole for Casey the cat’s litter box entrance, I really didn’t mean too.
Well, as of today the litter hole has been closed permanently with the matching solid cabinet door and you would never know it was ever there. That was the delivery we received, the final touch to the new reuse of that specific location. Seeing the hole made me feel sad daily, and I do hope now that it is no longer there that I will be able to heal better. Hubby had made a slide out drawer from some more of the cedar fencing and painted it white to co-ordinate with the rest of the decor, and all my craft material is now there; in its own place in baskets for use whenever I so desire; much better than spread hither and yon, all over the garage.

Cus called today he had emailed first stating that he would be. He had been away visiting his father, my mom’s brother, my uncle in Las Vegas where he has lived for years, but unfortunately at ninety-four he suddenly took a turn for the worse ( my cousin’s words, not mine), a wee bit senile and needing a cane, not driving anymore. I still think at his age that isn’t too bad! Well Cus decided to ask if he wanted to move to Florida, and unc said yes, and so Cus was busy taking care of that, finding a house for him in his gated community. And sure enough he found a 2000 square foot bargain that had no one living in it for over a year; he didn’t say if it was a foreclosure or anything but that he had to set if up for his Dad, who would be arriving the second week of December, and that his Vegas home would be put on the market right away. Sounds like he has everything under control, good for him!

A young man of thirty was found after four days lost in the Everglades, a thirty year old hunter named Jamey Mosch; he is tired, dehydrated and he remains in a local hospital for observation. Good news is hard to beat!

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

Valuable information attained, an errand and new and different place to eat...

This morning we were out bright and early, well, not too bright and not too early; it was nine A.M. and the fog was still rather evident. Earlier in the morning visibility had only been less than two miles.
You all know why that occurs, right?
Contrast in temperatures in case you didn’t, and in our case being on the water it appears more likely.

Oh, you want to know where we went.
We went to a center that was trying to access information for me to get the medical surgeries or whatever else that I may need, a non profit organization.
And I came home with a bundle of computer papers that were run off by the very nice woman there.
The Hill-Burton Act, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hill%E2%80%93Burton_Act ; which is for all types of medical aide for low or free programs created by the law and grants from our government.

Legitimately you can also receive more information on this and other interests if you just call 211, which is a hotline to additional information for just about anything and it is run by United Way.

The other information, which I do believe I have given out here before is the prescription assistance program, http://www.pparx.org/.

And lastly was the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation Homecare Grant Program, http://www.msfocus.org/Homecare-Grant-Program.aspx.

These sites, all you have to do is just for you to copy and paste them to your browser to navigate there, OK?

We also managed to accomplish something that is near and dear to me…repairing my two favorite jewelry pieces, name necklace that is forty-four years old as well as my heart necklace that was Hubby’s gift to me for our twenty-fifth anniversary nearly fourteen years ago. The chain was one of those herring bone types that always tangled, and so the jeweler with my idea switched the name chain which was the shorter one to the heart and then we only had to purchase one new one for my name to make it hang longer since the name was wider than the heart, got it? They both mean a great deal to me and I missed having them on, really! Otherwise I am pretty low maintenance, and I only want what represents importance of family when it comes to the expensive stuff. Like when my Mother’s rings (her engagement and wedding band that I wear on my right hand) needed repair that was a high priority too. PS my name necklace was a gift from both my Mom and Dad for my fifteenth birthday!

The reason we found the new unusual deli restaurant was because of those necklaces they wouldn’t be done for over and hour so we decided to catch some lunch since we were way over in River City AKA Punta Gorda.
The décor in the restaurant was architecturally utilitarian in a modern but charming way, and the name was mysterious. At first we thought it was some type of a grocery, the tables out side threw us, but we were surprised to find out that actually it was a nouveau Irish cuisine bakery/deli restaurant, but with a touch of Americana, got it?
It was bright and cheerful, and nothing like any big city deli we had been in NYC, Philly or Chicago or even our own that we had on the east coast here. The ambiance was very conducive to enjoying the menu, which also was not the conventional either. It started out with the basics pastrami, smoked salmon and the like but both of our choices with a twist, and I must add a very tasty one! And the prices were not too dear at all, and plus they cater. When in the area you too may enjoy Hendricks Food Vault, the link here will tell you more, http://www.hendrickstogo.com/ just copy and paste, and they are so far truly one of a kind! I think that it would make a great franchise.

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

The most excitement today was...

Today we did go for our H1N1 flu shots, yes, you heard me right Hubby finally agreed to get one too!
What relief, but actually getting them for some reason created a slight short-lived worrisome situation.

Let me explain… I looked for trouble and I got some.
I really don’t know what possessed me to call a hotline prior to going, oh yes I do remember now…I called to see if you needed any proof of your ability to meet the criteria, and the unknowledgeable person on the other end of the line seemed to think that she was going to make it even more difficult to take advantage of this free program by saying that you needed a prescription for proof since they didn’t have too many vaccines and they could only give them to the truly needy, severely ill or others who met the standards and that she seemed to think that a person with an autoimmune disease such as Multiple Sclerosis was not necessarily in that category!

And so I called the hospital that initially told me when and where the shots were to be given, sounds logical right? And I was reassured that no proof was needed.
For some stupid reason I called her back to tell her, and she argued but the health department says what she told me was the case, and so…

Yep, I called them and got the direct scoop from the top, and no, you did not need a prescription but if you had one, they would honor it, huh?

OK, let’s go I said to Hubby and we went; it was after one thirty P.M., after our number one son left on his journey home.
Being slightly concerned if there would be any shots left since they had started earlier in the day around ten A.M. we were expecting an enormous packed parking lot and lines going around the building out of the doors, but no there wasn’t a line at all, and all in all the whole process took only about ten, maybe fifteen minutes surprise!

Hubby while waiting for me to be done he did speak to some of the volunteers working there and they said yes, early this morning the lines were all the way around the building from about six A.M., and here it was going on 2 P.M. and there weren’t any and still had many shots left, and the news said they continued giving them out until four P.M., without any problems what-so-ever!

I also talked Hubby into hand delivering his cake slices to last night guests and he did what a guy!

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

Hubby's Birthday!

60 years and counting! Today was Hubby’s milestone… his sixtieth year on this planet!
What a lovely evening we had with all of our neighbors and our number one son!
Pizza was on the menu with antipasto as well as a veggie platter … with beer and wine…oops! Guess who forgot the most important thing…the cake!

It wasn’t that we didn’t have one; why it was as snug as a bug in a rug, but in our freezer, and brilliant person here just plum forgot about it!

So now just three are left, Hubby, me and number one son who is staying over and so we are each having a piece of the special marble strawberry butter-cream delight!

Dishes are done, leftovers are all put away and I am very pooped, so I will bid you all a very pleasant good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

What a family!

Geez… Sis finally chimed in with her version of the, ‘Mom Story’, and of course it was all her Mom’s fault! The newest version is that the four foot nine a hundred and twenty pound eighty-eight year old assaulted her, a fifty-six year old around two hundred and fifty pounds at five foot six inches! I know it; sounds crazy to me too!
But here’s the rub…Sissy states that after taking care of her Mom for four whole months that this so-called assault happened out of nowhere and for no good reason…huh?
Besides this whole drama started in August as far as we know; we had spoken with Mom in both her hospital stay and nursing home too, and Mom’s been home a month, according to her stable intelligible self who we had the pleasure of speaking with; now count with me people… August to September is one month, and September to October is … let me see, duh…2 MONTHS! Plus Mom was warehoused in the hospital and the nursing home, as well as her brief stay in the funny farm residence check-up, two or three times as far as we know.
Another lie sissy! OK, Mom it is true has had a history or sort of a reputation with her children for being difficult to get along with over the years at times, but… some Moms just do have that contrite perspective with their youngins, and that is just a fact of life, which at times most parenting can be a crap shoot at best and at worst some may end up in jail.
Bro on the other side of the country suggested to sis to call the cops on Mom, (shame on you Bro; on your own Mother!) due to the assault; but no, Sissy says she didn’t, and Mom says different…not only were the cops called but an ambulance too to take her to a funny farm testing zone, and….Mom passed all the tests and was allowed to go home!
Sis insists it was Mom’s neighbors that suggested it all and now they have decided that Sissy is not the one to be considered a friend, and have given her the cold shoulder and are on Mom’s side once again.
Ooops, talk about backfiring ideas.
Any-who, wonderful daughter and sister has divulged all these informative facts in an email to us, in which she also solicits her desire for us to call her after all these months of no follow-up access as she promised, never ever calling us or sending us any information what-so-ever. I bet you can guess what Hubby has said we should do, no? Yes, he said no emails or phone calls to this person who is supposed to be family.
PS She says she’s not done with the prospect of having her Mom committed!
We all know who should be… don’t we?
I am so disgusted with all this baloney!

But I will wish you all a good night, and just remember that you cannot choose your relatives only your friends! Hint here to couples thinking about marriage, always ask to meet the family first, and temporarily move in with them!

Sorry folks!

How soon we forget… this afternoon I received an email from Facebook reminding me that two of my so-called friends’ on that venue are having birthdays, which are next week and that I should send them a gift or some other form of recognition of the occasion. They are people who I barely know, and personally I would prefer to call them acquaintances, since one of them I had only briefly known in high school and the other is just a friend of a friend, and besides when I had my birthday this past summer I didn’t hear from either of them about it at all!
Ok, maybe that is a wee bit harsh, but you got my point.
Perhaps, it’s the fact that I don’t like being told what to do, aha!
Yep, the mother of the world telling all of you what to do nightly…doesn’t like to be told herself what to do!
Shame on me!
Somehow that one short email annoyed the bejeebers out of me.
And so tonight I have decided to watch my own P’s and Q’s, is how they say it, yeah like a hundred years ago they used to say that! But you all do know what I mean; I am quite sure, how do I know that you ask?
Because none of us really appreciate being told to do most things, am I right or what folks?
Adulthood has many benefits and one of those many is the fact that we should know what to do whenever we need to know what to do, is that clear? I betcha it is; as clear as mud that is.
Lectures are for teachers in classrooms where we actually seek out knowledge on topics we are unfamiliar with and so we can learn whatever we feel that we desire, correct?
But, learning is a never ending part of life as much as breathing and when we stop one the other is sure enough to follow, don’t you think?
I suppose that is my rationale.
When I was a child, before computers, BC, and before the Internet, IT, whoops that one isn’t as funny!
Any-who, there used to be encyclopedias, you remember them 20 something volumes of heavy paper and cardboard, and as that child I would find myself looking up one specific thing, but then moving onto some other thing within the pages of the original thing, go with me here…and so I find myself doing that today with the Internet, and boy am I glad. Even with only one good eye, and a brain, fortunately that hasn’t quit on me yet I still have an inquiring mind, ha! That used to be the tag line for the Philadelphia Inquirer, inquiring minds need to know! But that referred to aliens from outer space landing here or there or multiple headed footed animals and such.
I am interested in it all, not just animal oddities but our worlds oddities that is and everything in between!
And whenever I get a chance I do read about them in whatever form they appear, be it books, magazines, or even here on the net.
And so I apologize to all others of the world that I may treat without that thirst for knowing that I have, but that my friends is assuming and we all know what that means…

Good night to all and to all count your blessings or not, but I may very well might, may be doing it!

Usual here, but not everywhere...

Our weather appears to be back to what we like to call normal; in the balmy eighties, and right now at this evening hour of six P.M. it is just around seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit! Our only problem is that fire season is not yet here, and we are so very, very dry!

Unfortunately, most of the rest of the country is having weather unrest! Stormy weather or cold temperatures, but that’s what you get when you choose to live where seasons are a priority.

Page Field, Fort Myers had an air show today, and a father and son took a $20 plane ride, and the small plane crashed….but thankfully they all survived, even better they were all treated, including the pilot and released at the local hospital there. I sure hope that pilot refunds their money!

Now I could be wrong, I have been many times before, but don’t most places in the civilized world have a seatbelt law? You see, the reason I’m asking is we do have one here in Florida, but I still hear nightly on the news whenever there is a traffic crash and there is a fatality they sadly say and they weren’t wearing their seatbelt! How many times do we have to hear that horrible lament? People, put them on! It’s the law, almost everywhere, even if it isn’t; be smarter than that!

We no longer drive gas guzzling tanks like in days of yore, when we boomers were children or even if your own were born in the nineteen seventies like ours. Yes, I would say we drove tank like vehicles, but gas was cheap and we didn’t know any better. I can remember our eldest, lovingly nicknamed ‘Houdini’, due to his ability to escape from his very well strapped in toddler self from his car seat, and yes we did have them and tried using them too! But, number one son often would magically escape his confines of the mess of spaghetti straps and joined me in the front seat of my 1966 Chevelle Malibu while in transit from here to there! One time in particular sticks in my mind all these more than 35 years later, when a patrol car, yes police vehicle suddenly pulled out in front of me without benefit of any warning like a directional light flashing! I slammed on my brakes, and cursed under my breath to my small child’s unknowing being of what it meant (I HOPE, at least he says he doesn’t remember) who had just banged his beautiful little towheaded topped noggin on my rear view mirror, but fortunately without a scratch or even a cry. But boy was I mad! At the cop, of course, so mad so that I cut him off while using my indicator light and hand motions for him to pull over and he did and I gave him a piece of my mind! He apologized and thanked me, huh? Yes, that’s how I remember it, and I was maybe twenty-four years old or so at that time. I hope that peace officer was more careful after that, but who knows… One can only hope you get through to some people.

So now in this day and age where the seatbelt and car seats have evolved into true protection for us and loved ones and so use them so you don’t become another statistic! Ya hear?

Tobi’s orders, please! I wear mine all of the time.

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