Brrrrrrrrr, and brrrrrrrrrrrr, and brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

I do know that the above expression is not grammatically correct, but even so it is accurate. Here in the Sunshine State it has become temporarily very cold!
Last night it was actually in the fifties, and today it never ever made it up into the seventies, would you believe? I know…that isn’t supposed to happen here, we even put the heat on!

You aren’t too sympathetic though I bet, huh, all of the rest of you people are lucky if you get our lows for your highs, am I right?
Well, that would explain the lack of concern for us fellow Americans the southern branch.

It was all of your choices to be up there in that cold, mine on the other hand was to be here in the southern belt in the warmth and sunshine, and right now I feel gypped.
Do you all know that expression that you get what you pay for?
Well, that doesn’t apply here, LOL!

If that were the case we would have tons of sunshine and warmth always after twenty-three plus years that we have been paying to live here!

Gosh, just think about it if we could pay for our weather like we do everything else, do you think we could special order perfection?
No hurricanes, floods, snowstorms, ice storms, windstorms, mudslides, tornadoes you name it everyday the same beautiful weather day in and day out, wow, wouldn’t that be something?

Maybe it would be a bit boring, huh?
Yes, and we all would have nothing so-called uncontroversial to discuss at family gatherings and the like, when all else causes conflict and arguments, we must have the weather to talk about.
If it was always the same day after day that wouldn’t be much fun would it?
So the powers who be, who make our weather be it the weather genies, deities if you so believe, or the mystical weather gurus who dance the forecasts into our lives or whomever; they are apparently there for our amusement and entertainment to be able to also discuss non fighting material to be presented at any and all social events for opening conversation starters.

So now we know the true reason for the differences in the weather and regional discussions to take place hopefully without any menacing from those differences, OK?

I am so glad that we could clear that up for all of us through deductive reasoning, and who of you thought that Arthur Conan Doyle was dead?

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

Ordinarily I am too outspoken, and today was no different...

Many of you must have noticed by now that I am no shrinking violet in the opinion department, and so when my Bro-in-Law called today it took all my gumption to speak softly, not too loudly to be heard over Hubby’s and his conversation. Shocker that he called at all and an extremely rare occasion, are you all wondering why? Well, he called Mom, yes I know. And according to her this also doesn’t occur too often, but he did, and Mom told him that Hubby was going up there to help her straighten out her things. Bro had his alarms go off and needed to know specifics apparently, and so hubby spilled the beans about what Sissy had said and done and that some of it implicated him, Bro too, in her conspiracy!

He was upset and so Hubby sent him the email from Sissy that spelled it all out. He called back to say that he did say much of it but it was all taken out of context.
Boy, what a tangle web we weave when we practice to deceive!
But he might be telling the truth, but who knows at this point, actions speak louder than words.

And he did nothing, while Sissy created havoc for Mom all over the place and in every avenue of her life, removing furniture, her car, money, stocks and bonds, even drugging her to believe she could have something wrong with her! But we have been down this road before, so sorry that I seem to be revisiting this arena nightly.
Until it is all fixed, it will be on my topic list as a priority.

Hubby’s priorities will be many.
He will try to organize all of her confusion, and then make her safe with some type of alert system, and get her long distance phone service so she can make calls to us as well as receive them, and set up her laundry to be more accessible. Right now it is in her basement and she does have some balance issues and those steps are so dangerous she has to be driven to a Laundromat. There has to be a better way for a nearly eighty-nine year old to accomplish everyday tasks. Also to see if there are some adult services to check in on her through her local counsel on aging or granny nannies, just so she feels safe always, and can still maintain her home and lifestyle.

On that concerned note I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Turkey days come and turkey days go... and this one went...

As Thanksgiving comes to an end for this year this one we can put down in the record books as being… all right; when all was said and done.
Not that we had an enormous bunch of people over for guests or anything of the such, but the miniscule dinner that was prepared fortunately nothing at all went wrong; which in my book is somewhat of a blessing in its own right.

Our day of thanks was marked by tiny ness in the quantity of guests, besides Hubby and myself we at the last moment invited the single person from across the street when we both noticed that she was home and there were no other cars there to celebrate this auspicious occasion with her.

Hubby and I ate early around three, and were wondering where our guest was.
About five-ish she called to say that she had fallen asleep and asked for our forgiveness, of course we could forgive and we had quite a bit of leftovers anyway. Come on over I said whenever for we are here for the duration, and after all isn’t that a big part of what this day is all about being thankful and forgiveness too!

Mom was enjoying her Thanksgiving way up in Pennsylvania with her neighbors too, and number one son was spending the day with his girlfriend who made dinner way up where they are about two and half hours away.
So all was right with the world and all was happiness individually or with family and friends what more could anyone wish for?
Being realistic that is all any of us can be happy for each other no matter where or with whom.

And so to my readership I too wish that you too had a very pleasant celebration today and even if it wasn't what we used to think as the way it all should be, hopefully that it was happy and calm and with people you had some fondness for.
That’s the way we should all think happiness is not to be dealt in one certain form or consistency it should be flexible, and then we will all know what it truly is… acceptance of not always the usual and ready for anything!

On that note I will once again bid you all a very happy good night and to all of you tonight would be a great night to start count those blessings if you haven’t been and we will too!

Events have changed...

Hubby has now made airline reservations for his big trip to his Mom’s, and he will be leaving next week for a week. He has found a reasonable rate to go from Southwest Airlines, and will drive to the airport in Fort Myers and leave our car in long term parking there. I don’t drive so it doesn’t matter to me, and it will be there for him when he arrives home. And Mom said she will be putting the insurance back on her car for him to drive her around to accomplish whatever needs to be done while there.

We will be putting our heads together briefly to compose a to-do list for what needs to be done in the week that he will be there.
Mom has complained about her junk-mail piling up, so that should be gone through and appropriately disposed of.
Next: is her personal papers and assets that needed to be filed and checked for their appropriate dating and where it all goes more than likely into a new filing system that Hubby will probably be getting for her while there.

Her neighbor will be picking Hubby up from the airport.
That also will be very helpful.

I suppose it is a big relief knowing Hubby won’t be driving all that way by himself.
But if you know me I will still be worrying about this and that anyway.

Please understand that the last time I was all by myself was quite a while ago, and so that in itself is a bit scary, but I’ve got you all there, right?

Time passes and life goes on but growing up is hard to do when you basically have never lived alone. I commuted to college from my parents home, got married from my parents home, thus never have lived alone!

And so I will look at my week as somewhat of an adventure with challenges…fortunately I do still have somewhat of a brain, although some may argue that point.

More questions: what will Sissy do now that Mom has changed the will successfully and has made Hubby in charge and more than that, but if I tell you I would have to kill you! (Mom’s decision, by the way! All Hubby said to her is that she should do what she WANTS, not what somebody else does!)
Hope Hubby knows how to call the authorities, what am I crazy? (Sissy probably does think that I am and that everyone else is too who doesn’t agree with her, LOL)
Hubby’s a retired cop; of course he does! Just in case, it’s 911! (Kidding of course)

All of this cloak and dagger prospects makes me wonder though… going in stealth and leaving the same way. I feel like telling him this is his assignment if he wishes to complete it he should destroy this file once he has read it. Sound familiar? I believe Mission Impossible, although I hope his is possible to complete within his allotted time period, we can only HOPE!

On this note of mystery and suspense I will acknowledge that you should be bidding good night to all and to count those blessings and we will too!

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!