Mom cancelled her lawyer gig but rescheduled for tomorrow!

And the reason Mom cancelled her lawyer will appointment was... she couldn't find the will she read to her son, my Hubby, on the phone only less than two hours before!
Hubby didn’t find out until last night, and reminded his Mom where it was and for her to put it in a place he knew she would remember. It apparently worked since today she rescheduled with confidence to get the job done.

Hubby still insists on him going up there, but not by plane, by driving, I know with his back? He said he will go slow and take two days instead of the overnight that we did in our healthy younger days; after all it is nearly 1200 miles, to be exact 1167 miles. And I bet you are all wondering why I’m not going… two reasons Skipper (the dog,) Charley( the cockatiel), and a pond full of fish to feed and care for plus I have no truly warm clothing, or even any layers that would fit this new enormous me. But oddly enough Hubby still has his down jacket, and a few others too from twenty-three years ago that still fit as well as sweaters, socks, T-shirts, jeans, nice pants and blazer etc, even gloves!
It’s cold up there, and when it does that here we can stay inside until it’s over but there he might not have that choice. Even with gas expenses it would be cheaper because once there he would have had to have rented a car for more than the plane fare. You see Mom has her car back from sis but had taken the insurance off because she no longer drives it. It is a newer small Chevrolet with only three thousand miles on it.

We are both suffering adverse reactions to this situation in the ways most anxious depressed people do, Hubby is smoking more and I am eating more; both not good at all for either of us!

He’s worried about his Mom and me fending for myself while he would be gone and I am worried about her too, as well as him driving all that way alone! Health wise we aint what we used to be, but even though he’s flown before his fear of flying has resurfaced, and also the expense issue as well as how to get around when once there as you can see it is all a vicious cycle; and on and on…etcetera, etcetera, etcetera; you all know what I mean.

Back to reality, Hubby is preparing the fish pond for his journey by cleaning it completely since there was an algae build up and our little friends were gasping for air!
The filters had been cleaned daily because of debris caused by our recently windy days, and so this process was really called for. He recycles the water from the pond by watering our bushes and trees, and then refills it slowly with unfortunately city water, but we have no choice our rain barrels contains roof debris, which our veggie garden handles better and that is where that water goes.

The wild birds outside may not be fed so often, he took over when I could no longer raise my arms to fill their feeder, and was too off balance to do both at the same time. But I have considered letting him empty the birdbath and using that lower vessel to fill with seed, they have the pond fountains and waterfall to get their water from and they do anyway now. I will still need to use my walker for that stuff, and for getting the mail from our roadside mailbox. Where there is a will there is a way I always say!

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

Fell asleep fairly early and awoke early too...

I suppose that going to bed early and waking early is a normal for most.
We all know the old adage,” early to bed early to rise makes a man, healthy, wealthy and wise.” But not once do they ever mention women, doesn’t that seem odd to you?

I suppose not too since that quote is one from Benjamin Franklin and from the mid 18th century that would be a good reason why it was so sexist, women were not yet considered significant, not to mention that old Benny was somewhat of a womanizer! Oh, you didn’t know? Just watch the John Adam’s history series on HBO or rent it as we did, very interesting about those founding fathers.

Moving on… we did go out for groceries for the holiday today. We are prepared for a quaint small Thanksgiving for two or a few more…We purchased a small nine pound whole turkey. I had thought that a turkey breast would do just fine but believe it or not it was quite a bit dearer in price so we went with the whole one instead. And we are going healthy too, real sweet potatoes without marshmallows or too much brown sugar, frozen French cut string beans (no sodium) and healthy choice mushroom soup (now on sale), minimal amount of crunchy canned onions, fresh cranberries (again for sugar control), and really easy to make as the multi-grain stuffing from bread I will toast, cut up and add sautéed in extra virgin olive oil onions to as well as the sodium free chicken bullion. We have frozen corn, and fresh asparagus, and for dessert pumpkin pie minus the whipped cream, but I will probably make a lower fat and less sweet topping myself, not too hard to do… but a secret for now.

Hubby is following up on his Mom’s situation and found out that in September, she, under apparent duress signed away everything to her daughter in her will, but leaving him a small time share in the Fort Myers area, which for years has been impossible to sell and is worth a tenth of what it cost her to purchase more than thirty years ago, before we moved to this state. Any-who, he had followed up by speaking with her attorney that had helped return her to her home and had gotten her power of attorney back, but Mom gave it away again, this time to her neighbor. This attorney also said he acted on Mom’s behalf to get sissy to return all other properties, like Mom’s car, deed to her condo, stocks, bonds and 15 thousand dollars in cash. But Mom has barely received most of the property, and this attorney also recommended that she change her will back to who she wanted to have what, with an appropriate will attorney which he was not. Mom procrastinated so Hubby told her that she should take care of that now and she went today at 3 P.M.! Finally, we hope that she will get everything else back real soon. Hubby’s not comfortable with practically a stranger in charge but we are so far away, although he may have to figure on going up there after the holiday, we will see.

Turmoil is not easy at any age.

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

Muscle spasms in strange places, lack of a proper bedtime...waking too early

Welcome to my world. It’s no wonder my concentration has once again shifted to nearly lacking at all.
And P S: the strangest place that I had gotten a muscle spasm was last night in my throat previously it was in my upper arms.
I couldn’t fall asleep, and so I was up until late, and woke many times during the night as well, finally getting out of bed at five A.M. and up for the day.
Around noon I laid down for a nap with not putting too much stock in the prospect, since I haven’t been able to nap for months, but to my pleasant surprise I did sleep for almost an hour and a half!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to have too much of an effect on me, since at six P.M. I am still rather groggy, with a bellyache to boot that has been with me all day long.

The elderly gentleman across the canal is unfortunately still hospitalized, but now they are going to test him for bladder cancer, hope he does not have that!
I lost a dear elderly gentleman from the arthritis foundation association last March from that. Could it be in the water?

Mom update: we spoke again with her last night and she still sounds good and she will be spending Thanksgiving with her neighbors that have adopted her, and she them, at least she has someone to count on close by.

Consequently since or perhaps because of my ills surfacing once again today there is not that much to write, and so…

I will bid you all a good night and to all count those blessings and I will too!

Frustrating morning started off the day today!

Let me explain...how many of us know that we are truly addicted to our computers?
I hear you all screaming at me, me too!
Well, then you will realize where I am coming from when I say this morning it was downright frustrating not having ours available.
It didn’t even crash again, thankfully, but what it did do to me was a wee bit more ominous since it was like a nasty tease from an evil being!
Everything appeared to be working fine audibly I could hear it, but the monitor refused to go on no matter what I did.
And believe me I tried everything.
Jiggling the mouse, shutting down, unplugging and replugging in all the connectors, and when that wouldn’t work I shut down again and vacuumed out every inch of dust I could or couldn’t see!

And Hubby slept through the whole thing, although I did close our bedroom door out of concern from waking him since I have been getting up at ungodly hours, like four and five A.M.; truthfully I don’t recall when I started trying to get it all working.
And I was a very good patient gal too; I waited until after eight A.M. to start asking him when he was going to get up out of bed.
But I started softly and just for an added touch I made my side of the bed.
He arrived on the scene around eight twenty or so, grabbed a cup of caffeine and proceeded to manhandle the technological center of my exasperating small universe of communication and ascertaining unit of knowledge.
After about five maybe ten minutes he said yes it is a goner.
Or some words to that affect, maybe not exactly.

Any-who, I smiled and said nothing but got out the phone book, and started looking up the local computer monitor stores, four in all, and proceeded to get a price from all of them. Two had identical prices for the same thing. But one was geographically closer; we had a winner! One of the other ones did not have the price range that we wanted and the final one didn’t have the size.
I enjoy letting my fingers do the walking, but more so on the computer than by using a heavy phone book.
And so Hubby shaved, got dressed and headed out, and returned oddly over an hour later. For what ordinarily should have been half that, being that the store was less than four miles away.

He said that they treated him badly in the store; first they tried to give him the wrong monitor, a larger more expensive one, which was rather odd since he had handed them the ticket for the correct one with the code on it! And the man who should have taken care of him left him, and seemed more anxious to help a person buying printer paper than him; very strange.

When all was said and done I am back on the Internet speaking with you on our new monitor that is so different from our five year old one that came with the computer, this one is wide and narrow. The other one was tall and narrow, but this new one is supposed to be larger, but the other one looked much larger, perception.
We never know what we have until it is missing… and that could be just about anything you can think of!
Good night to all and to all count those blessings and I will too!

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!