The day started out with a very nice pleasant renewal of hearing from another old friend, but things changed

Why did the day change, you ask?
Well, in the very welcoming email my dear old friend sent was the comment that she had tried to Google me, hmmm ordinarily that would bring most to this site here at my Blog or even to my Facebook site, no problems there… But since I hadn’t Googled myself in quite some time, and so I tried it and was deeply disturbed by what I found.
And what was that you ask?
A site that spewed hatred of people with lists that determines race/ religion by surnames, and having a newer greener way to teach hating of people of those particular religions and races, just horrific!
Apparently, it was my own quote that got me into this dilemma, but I am still proud of what I said and will not take it back because I do believe it is true and that their site actually proves my point that, “Hate is a crime of stupidity.” There, I have said it again.
I would truly like for the person who put me on this, ”list” to know that although freedom of speech is a right they do have they should also know that using others’ quotes and names without their permission I believe is not, especially when utilized to promote hatred of surnames of those people who they do not even know!

Speaking of hatred, you know my father felt that word ‘hate’, which is a four letter word, by the way in case you didn’t notice, was an extremely powerful word, and it should never ever be used. He would say, when I as a difficult teen and would say that I hated this one or that one; he would always correct me and say to me that I do not hate anyone and should never ever. But my hate was always directed at a situation or verbal disagreement I was not happy with; never a person for their differences from me in race or religion.

My biggest fear of being part of too many minorities these days, my religion, my being an older woman and now being shorter, obese and disabled is that people will not see me for me, and the fear of invisibility or the inner me.
How many times have you heard people say that first impressions are how most are judged? I too was guilty of that. Well, with all the other problems in the world this is my true fear, and the only way I seem to be able to combat it is by talking too much, and smiling sometimes too often or inappropriately when out. I think I took my own quote to heart, “smiling fools the brain”, well it really does.
Now you ‘haters’ see what you can do with that one!

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

Traveling hither and yon...whoa... a busy sort of day, great really!

As days come and go I do feel that we did accomplish quite a bit today, really!
Oh so you want me to express or show you some tangible evidence of that, eh?
Oh how Canadian of me, but I am an American just speaking some Canadian, sorry the Olympics’ influence I suppose, really, and doesn’t eh sound so much better than huh, huh, you say, but I am confusing you all, so sorry eh?

Any-who, today we did do quite a bit, we started out by going over to the doctors’ office to pick up my prescription to have another A1c test, diabetes test, but this time at a lab, so another payment, another Vampira! You know what I mean, the ones who stick you to remove the staff of life from you; phlebotomist I believe is the actual name of the job, and she did remove quite a bit more than what the others had in a so-called similar test. All the previous ones just did the finger stick, but this was inner arm worthy, and big guns, tubes I mean but in reality only one cylinder was filled to the brim with my gorgeous ruby nectar. See it is inside what counts, Mom was right! And I did know somewhere I was still beautiful, even though you wouldn’t know from my outside, oh well...

I got ahead of myself since I went out of sequence with our actual day, you see our second stop was NOT the lab at all, it was our county library, but Hubby could not find a parking spot, and so he just pulled up to the book return and put the due back book in there. We did have intentions of going inside but it was crazy there, as if they were giving things away for free, oh wait, they are! LOL

Our third stop was the lab and although the crowd was small, and I barely had a chance to make friends/conversation etc. with the usual waitees since I was called fairly quickly for my turn. Sadly they also had a magazine in the waiting room that I enjoyed for once and I had no time to finish, an architectural one. I so enjoy looking at those sorts of things interior design and such. The report will be ready in twenty-four to forty-eight hours or so, and I will more than likely have to make another appointment to get that with another paid office visit, oh posh, why does this always have to be money, money, money for this? I so enjoyed the days when we could just call to get our test results before all this so-called privacy protection, NOT! Why you say? Because it all goes into the C-O-M-P-U-T-E-R, but of course you all know that.

Our fourth stop was a frivolous one, we received one of those gotcha ads to win a new car if your scratch off with a key attached area on the literature sent to you and that supposedly opens something, the scratch off says you are a winner, and of course they all are, but this time we thought eh we would go see what’s up with that, after all it was an ad campaign at the dealership where we originally bought our current vehicle. Hubby went in alone, since getting out my scooter would be rather time consuming and we really felt he wouldn’t be there too long. Yep he did win a scratch off ticket, and it was a bummer one, a no good loser! Should’ve known better; no one should expect something for nothing! On our way back we stopped at that Irish Deli we tried way back in the fall, and had a healthy lunch, a chicken roll-up, and Greek salad for me, and Hubby had a lesser health oriented Cuban Panini, but we both enjoyed our choices.

Last stop was our grocery for my prescriptions, and some more of this and that grocery items, and finally home sweet home!

I bet you all have to admit that was a pretty busy day?
Well, Hubby’s Mom’s neighbor called just before dinner tonight to say Mom was over there and sad and lonely and upset, we all took turns calming her and had her laughing by the time we hung up, sweet small rewards are what blessings are made of, and if you think a bigger or better this or that is what makes you better then you are way off!

On that joyous note of a warm inside good feelings, making someone else feel better is the best gift in life! Good night to all and to all make your blessings by making someone laugh, and feel better for that’s the true meaning of giving, and we will count our blessings with you too!

Halleluiah!

Hubby’s Mom has finally made arrangements to come on down next month, yeah!
Now we can get on with other things, you betcha.

My letter to the editor appeared again in the local newspaper. I do believe this was my twentieth or more published by them over the years, I lost track, actually.
This time I was agreeing with a previous letter from another reader commenting on the length of time that the debate has been going on about health care reform, and how it is really costing us more, not less not being there for the uninsured masses. Think about cost over-runs for hospitals, doctors’ offices, etc. that they find themselves having to absorb. Maybe this analogy will help you all, shop-lifting, think about this now when people steal merchandise from retail stores the only way the stores can make up for their losses is to charge the rest of the consumers more for their products, got it? It is really that simple. When the uninsured have medical emergencies and can’t pay their way the populace therefore the insured pay higher premiums, doctors have to charge more to make up their differences, so you see, having a universal health care system would save everyone money! TA DA!

I bet most of you thought it all stems from Hilary’s trying way back in the 1990’s during her Hubby’s administration, well that was its elderly period, actually you would have to go back much, much further than that, would you believe a few centuries ago?
Yes, the idea or seed what-have-you was initially planted by of all people, Teddy Roosevelt around the turn of the twentieth century, and his Cousin continued to try for a resolve during his presidency as well, that is FDR of whom I am speaking, and on and on, but still nothing. Those wheels of progress do slow down sadly in the bureaucracy we laughingly call our government. I do have faith in it though the right for eighteen year olds to vote took many, many years too way back in FDR’s time, before it was passed in 1972, but by then I was 22, and had been voting for a year!

My main concern expressed in that letter was how our age for life expectancy is diminishing in length, instead of increasing, shocking! We should all be appalled at that revelation, which is available to any who wish to look it up. There are too many countries that are ahead of us in that avenue of longevity. I am though, referring to the next generation, not the elderly ones now or even their children who would be us, but the grandchildren the offspring of us 'Baby Boomers', our children’s children, and isn’t that just horrific?

My resolve is simple hire an ‘ombudsman’ to negotiate all written policy prospectives, and usher them through the house and senate. He or she could work sort of like a mediator, which they really are, to keep the sanity and to create something we can all care about.

On those thoughtful ideas I will wish you all a very good night and tell you all to count those blessings and we will too!


PS Happy Birthday to my Mom, up there in heaven; where I do know you are! Today would have been her 99th!

Do you like money?

Tell the truth, I know you do.
Who doesn’t like money?
Notice I am using the lesser infatuating verb, ‘like’ instead of the all too overused, over the top, excessive one, ‘LOVE’.
Although, I am sure there are many of you out there who really do ‘LOVE M-O-N-E-Y.’
Come on people, in this day and age of greed causing such a public outcry when used inappropriately and of ruining our worldwide economy; do you all still have that need to be so wealthy that you have too much of it all, and have no idea what to do with any of it?
Does anyone out there really know the meaning of the word, E-N-O-U-G-H?
Let’s dissect that word, enough, it truly does mean: what you have meets your needs of your requirements, nothing more or less, got that?
Simplicity at its finest, I do think.

The best way to realize that an over abundance is disgustingly harmful and vulgar is to go volunteer with people who have less than you. I thought it was a great experience when I had the privilege of working on the 1990 Census in the Daytona Beach area, what a wakeup call. I met millionaires who were unhappy and a single mother with three children living in small apartment and managing on just ten thousand dollars a year. OK, that was then, and this is now, and that is way below our current poverty level, but you may be able to get my point? Fast forward two years mind you, Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida, Hubby and I, and our sons all went down to help those people, and you know what they said about their materialistic losses… they were still alive everything else they could live without, although many did mention the photos of family that blew away, but that’s not monetary, although most would consider priceless! Folks these were people whose homes were flattened in front of their very own eyes, with some of them still in them!
Talk about having a unique perspective of what really matters!

Contrary to public wisdom money does not bring happiness or health. Most recent example is Ted Kennedy with the health issue; he could afford the best doctors in the world but still he died from his brain tumor.

People some days I feel like slapping you all silly!
I grew up without wants or needs with everything being provided for me, very fortunate; I do now realize as an adult and get mystified by others greediness.
No, really, what is it that you really need in life to get that elusive satisfaction of enough?
If you can be honest with yourself and your loved ones, now I am talking people, people, not the almighty dollar, yen, euro or what have you, but I mean the flesh and blood living species that you are tied to by blood, take those dearest ones and discuss what is really important. And I bet, no, I absolutely know that your lives will change for the better by having come to terms of what is your, ‘ENOUGH’. Look up the true meaning and start there; it is only a suggestion but then I am full of it, as you all know! LOL

Provocative, I hope, making us all rethink what is truly important at the minimum, and so on that note of my motto to live by with my personal, ‘enough’, goodnight to all and to all think exactly what you’re counting when you do count those blessings and we will too!

PS: Ooops, I almost forgot last night we watched…Duplicity! Ta Da!

Movie Night

What we have here is Duplicity, Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, with The Surrogates as the topper.
That sentence almost made sense; ya think?
Actually, those are all titles of the movies we have for tonight’s viewing pleasure if we so desire.
I know, I know you were all thinking something else…let’s breakdown why that is… the title, ‘Duplicity,’ makes one think of contradiction of thought, deed, or speech, yep that’s what it means.
Now we all do know Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, you get my point?
‘The Surrogates’ throws a wrench into the flow of what I was trying hard to create here. A motif of entertainment for the evening, although those three 2009 cinematic treasures would keep us up all night, since they are, in order of discussion: 125, 105 and 89 minutes long! That’s like over five and half hours or is it days, sometimes I get confused, NOT!
Yes, I do know it could be done.
But my attention span isn’t that long anymore; isn’t it funny how we go backwards when we get older? Neither is my constitution to stay awake for all those hours, staring at the TV monitor.
So what we have to do is chose…hard stuff here, but the good thing is we have them for as long as we so wish. Now ‘Duplicity’ is a spy movie with Julia Roberts and Clive Owens, and ‘Beyond’ is a remake of a 1956 movie, but this one is with Michael Douglas, and the last ‘The Surrogates’ is a sci-fi sequel with Bruce Willis, what to see, oh, oh what to see decisions, oh my?
Wouldn’t life be great if that was the hardest thing we had to do; decide on what movie to watch?
Guess I will have to make that difficult conclusion up with Hubby’s in-put, later on tonight…don’t worry, if I remember I will notify all of you on what that was tomorrow night, OK? LOL
After last night’s journal of unending prose I have decided to be kinder and gentler tonight and close this with less than a thousand words, and no dramedy.

I know dear followers, and I use that term loosely, since only one fesses up as my only, but that your hearts are broken on how you enjoy my overdone drivel, and we all must take baby steps even in the momentary flowing of this specter of flowery text, too much too soon may spoil you all, LOL.

How I do love to be silly!
Good night to you all and to all of you count those blessings and we will too!

PS many may have noticed that I have entered the age of Norm Crosby writings, but his is on purpose and mine is not, only by accident, or is that occidental? He was a master of malapropism, me too? LOL

Tonight I have my 'dramedy', the 411 on upcoming new stuff plus much much more

I will be trying hard to inform my readership as much as possible.
How many of you are aware of the new credit laws that will be going into affect on February 22, 2010, this coming Monday?
Well, I was savvy enough to find it, save it and so I thought I would share the site to steer you right on what is going on, so just copy and paste this site: http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/credit/banks-and-credit-card-companies-finding-clever-ways-around-card/19353882/

Next for you PC users, we all know that my computer has become rather finicky lately and dare I say slowing down if you can relate to this dilemma… well, this information will help us all out, how to do your own speed cleaning up for your PC, just copy and paste this one too: http://daol.aol.com/articles/pc-performance?icid=main|htmlws-main-n|dl8|link3|http%3A%2F%2Fdaol.aol.com%2Farticles%2Fpc-performance

Today we did have some excitement…NOT! Unless you are a flea on a shelter dog this was rather a tame, too much quiet day. It did start out with much anticipation for we, Hubby and me were going to go to the Grecian Festival right here in our hometown, sounded like fun and enjoyment; a bit of Mediterranean fanfare without hopping on a plane or boarding a ship, Ompa! The new church that is still under construction was quite impressive I truly did not know we had such a large congregation of Greek Orthodox people in our community, an education for me.
Perhaps it was our fault for arriving so early, since they were still setting up, but the newspaper said it started at eleven A.M. and it was only a few minutes to, maybe they all were on Grecian time, but that would be several hours ahead not behind.

Anywho, it did appear to be a festival with the appropriate amounts of balance of food and rides for the kiddies that is, since we no longer ride, and did I mention we no longer have kiddies, not even the next generation…
They also had handouts that stated their programming which appeared to start mostly in the evening, accept for the two man band in the band tent who were playing instruments, and singing but their mouths were not moving, how odd?
I asked them about that and they laughed still no answers…mmmmmm they must have been, sure they were lip-sinking, mu-zac, elevator music, huh hmm.
Anyway Hubby stopped a buxom brunette in a rather tight fitting t-shirt that said on the back that she was part of a dance team, and so he asked her when they would be dancing, and she said the children get out of school at four that’s when! So the children were the dancers?
Never found out, we decided to have some Gyros and a Greek salad for me too for a lunch, it all was yummy and then since we had seen it all and it was only just around twelve-ish we left, but when we paid the two dollar donation each when we arrived we had been told that our tickets were good all weekend, and so come back anytime, maybe, maybe not…
As we were leaving we saw signs saying that there was a Senior Palooza at our Cultural Center, whatever that was, and we said, why not? And we were on the road trip to there, oh what fun!

Sure enough it was a senior doohickey event for assisted living or independent living, diabetes info, healthy foods and beverages, hearing aids, eye checks you name it they had it for whatever ails you, but I did not know those were all exclusive to the seniors, since we have a lot of that stuff and the only ones who say we are seniors is AARP!
Information and handouts were rampant, good for Hubby and me, lots of places to tell his Mom about and one table with anything I needed to know about diabetes, pre, one or two! I was given a great recipe diet book with an in-depth explanation of carbs, what more could a scaredy-cat be happier to see and read!

Almost bumped into a person I did not want to see. She appeared well, much better than her dire health a few years ago… where she needed assistance with nearly everything, and I lost my usefulness, how sad, we had been good friends I thought but again I was wrong, since I was only a friend when I could do whatever she needed, and as soon as I couldn’t the heck with you! Bitter! I know I sound that way, but it does seems that many people just have you there to serve their needs and when you no longer can, good bye and good luck! Unfortunately, I am a sap in that arena, many have done that to me, and that is why I am careful who I chose as friends… had been stung too many times! I know what you all are saying right now: Tobi it’s not nice to wallow in self pity… I know, I just feel that some take advantage of my good nature, which can be unrelenting at times, and then when I had to say no to them, they said fine, goodbye to you lady. As I have said before many feel their problems are worse than yours.
Plus this woman has made it over a year past my Mom’s age with similar ailments when she had died at only seventy, and I suppose I was worried she would die, but now she hasn’t, and its best we are no longer ‘friends’ since I have been known as a jinx, and I suppose we really weren’t since after her surgery, and she needed help being driven around so I drove her, she would introduce me as her driver, not her friend! Sorry I am no Morgan Freeman, I’m too feminine, short and pale, but I do love the man! And she was no Miss Daisy either, too poor! That is NOT a friend, and I wasn’t getting paid a red cent, by the way; I did it purely out of friendship, stupid me. Same with other situations, like when I took her in the wee hours of the morning for eye surgery two weeks after our home had been devastated by Hurricane Charley, because I had promised before it all happened. Oh well, old news…venting, and I was going to try and keep this light and humorous I will try to do better tomorrow night I promise, OK?

I better say good night before I start again on another tangent, did I mention because of that early bumping into her we left the place without seeing everything? It was my fault entirely on that and I take full responsibility.
All of you please count those blessings and we will too!


PS Tiger it was about time to own up to your mistakes, and now maybe the media will leave you and Elin alone, now it should be private between you two.