Smile it fools the brain!

Now, isn’t that lovely?
Have you ever talked yourself into or out of the doldrums?
Or have you ever verged on possible momentary depression?
Perhaps you would like to maintain that you have only had cabin fever or a bad day…
But if you are an honest human being you have suffered at one time or another of some form of any of the above euphemisms.

And I am here to tell you what to do the next time you are feeling those blues, and need a bit of cheeriness to chase that mood away… Well folks it’s as simple as this… ‘Smile it fools the brain!’ Besides it is contagious.
Haven’t you ever noticed?
I contend that you should try it, and be amazed at the results it will bring not only to you but to everyone you share it with!
Too simple you say.
Well, in life the best things in life are just that…simple.
Think of sunsets, sunrises, beautiful flowers, birds singing, butterflies winging, you name it its free and sure to make you smile!

MJ, Michael Jackson my friends knew the meaning of that song written by Charlie Chaplin for his movie Modern Times circa 1936 that song named ‘Smile’.

Smile Lyrics
Theme Music for Modern Times
(Music by Charles "Charlie" Chaplin -- Lyrics by John Turner and Geoffrey Parsons)
“Smile tho' your heart is aching,
Smile even tho' it's breaking,
When there are clouds in the sky
You'll get by,
If you smile
thro' your fear and sorrow,
Smile and maybe tomorrow,
You'll see the sun come shin-ing thro' for you
Light up your face with gladness,
Hide ev-'ry trace of sadness,
Al -'tho a tear may be ever so near,
That's the time,
You must keep on trying,
Smile, what's the use of crying,
You'll find that life is still worth-while,
If you just smile...”
I dare you to get this out of your head!
Keep on smiling world things will get better they can’t get any worse, buh duh dum!
Those were the bad days of the depression.
Funny how the more things change the more they stay the same, and sometimes even the cure is the same too…timeless!

Take care peeps and remember what Tobi says about smiling and you will get through anything, believe me!

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

The weather was just perfect today and the work continued...

No one can complain about today’s weather it was picture perfect.
Temps did rise above the high sixties into the mid-seventies just like what was predicted!

The work continued on the boardwalk also, and I was a happy sidewalk supervisor but I did it all from the comfort of our patio, and on one of our comfortable webbed chairs that meet your body where they need to; you know the kind, eh?

This is the life, gorgeous weather entertainment by the yard; make that in the yard, LOL!

Tonight is movie night here in our homeland video room, translation: living-room, the choice is 2012, a two and half hour plus marathon, that big time disaster flick. It was hyped quite a bit when it first came out into the theaters, and those trailers were really something, weren’t they? You know, that always makes me a teeny weenie bit skeptical, about the film’s quality.
Did you know that most movies in the theater go to DVD within seventeen weeks but for some it’s only about fourteen?
The theaters could use your bucks so don’t stop going by any means, you could make the economy that much worse folks, or start waiting for the DVD homeland theaters, but isn’t that interesting; I thought so, and so I wanted you all to know too.

The reason we stopped going to the theaters was not for any of the reasons you might think… oh sure the prices went up, but didn’t everything?
No, I could not sit for very long due to back problems, and I would have to get up frequently or stiffen up, and lavatory breaks too…oh well, and now its so much more non annoying for others that we wait to see those cinematic gems at home on our own pausing machine or even to play something over we may have missed seeing or not heard correctly, what have you? As you get on in age you too may agree that is the way to go, or not to go, just stay in.

I made my famous white clam sauce and angel hair pasta for dinner tonight, Hubby calls it Chinese food since we all do know the history of pasta actually coming from China, and with this meal we are usually hungry again a few hours later, why is that I wonder?

Any-who on that silly note I will bid you all a good night and to all count your blessings and we will too!

We have been told we are in for... a very nice weekend, and week too!

Let’s say it’s about time on our home front that, that should have happened.
This is Florida after all, and nice weather is what we are all about, eh?
Gosh, we are nicknamed, ‘The Sunshine State’, for a reason!

They, the meteorologists that is, are saying we should be almost back to our normal temperatures for this time of the year, you don’t know what our normal temps are?
Well, let me tell you, they are fifties during the night and mid-seventies in the day time hours, degrees that is.

But last night we had mid-forties and today it rose to the high sixties.
Marginally colder but we as Floridians know the difference, and we want our norms back big time!

Why six months after moving here, nearly twenty-four years ago, my blood diminished in thickness I do believe to the point where when the thermometer slid to sixty degrees, it was a reason to get out the woolies! But unfortunately we gave them away when we moved here! LOL I really hate the possibility of getting assimilated to these colder temperatures with then feeling that eighty could be hot instead of just warm enough!

Blood thins I do believe, but I have no biological proof or a way to know for sure, and if it even could be realistically a truism.

Anywho, our resistance to colder temperatures did go the way of our overcoats, and we much prefer lighter weight clothing items to garnish our bodies with.
Not so much for me these days, lesser clothing, but so long as no one can see me I will put my bathing suit on to go into our swimming pool, which is only right, eh, and proper attire for the job?
That’s another thing until that water temperature goes up to eighty-five in our pool no toes are going in!

The Gulf of Mexico is still; would you believe in the fifties?
The only good that could come from all of this chilliness is that El Nino will prevent our hurricane season from producing too many nasty storm threats, since cold Gulf water temperatures prevent hurricanes from forming. It’s the warm water that creates the appropriate climate for such horrendous things!
And so you can only imagine that we are hoping for our cold Gulf of Mexico water temperatures to continue so we maintain this five year trend of no direct hits of hurricanes, thank you very much.

We are already plunging into the fifties for this evening, but there is nothing I personally can do about it, except wait it out, and personally I have got all the time in the world!

So on that oblique note of compromise I will bid you all a very good night and remind you to count those blessings and we will too!

The boardwalk was begun; an old acquaintance has passed away...

Sadly, I found out that a woman who I knew through the Arthritis Foundation has passed away, a truly lovely person who became our Acquacize coordinator as well as a statuesque model for our fund raising fashion shows that I would put together. She was a beautiful woman who had never modeled before I asked her to, which was quite a surprise to me, since she was a natural. She was a retired nutritionist and was originally from New York, her nephew had been killed on 911 since he worked in one of the towers in a financial office in that profession. How she loved her family and many of them had moved down to Florida with her too. She passed away on January 12th suddenly at the age of seventy-two, and the person who wrote about it was told that is all they knew. I found out from the newsletter that I received today from a national organization I belong to called H2u but our chapter does everything on a local level. Good-bye dear good sweet A, you will be sorely missed.

Hubby started on the boardwalk today, eight foot garden ties, a dozen in all that will be tying the whole project together were around four bucks a piece. You see Hubby will be using the left over cedar fencing again for the cross decking and the reason for such a construction of this monumental passageway… so I can roll around the back yard, but of course! You see my walker or scooter according to the texture of the under ground soft or mushy low or high created an uneven terrain for me to maneuver the territory. This boardwalk will hopefully allow for me to go down to the dock without difficulty, and enjoy things I once had before like fishing perhaps, glaring at Otto the otter, dolphin, manatees, stingrays or mantas, or watching the sunset or whatever else I am so inclined to do. Won’t that be lovely? It has been well over a year since I could do any of that!

My new do has proven to be not difficult to manage it is basically a wash and dry type of cute cut!

I forgot to mention that yesterday on our errands I had one silly thing stuck in my mind that I wanted to free up my utensil drawer of clutter, and I thought the perfect way to do that is to take my stylishly useful stainless utensils that I had acquired over the years to put them perhaps in a flamboyantly colorful ceramic vase in the center of the stove.
And so as we went on our journey for necessities yesterday I would look for this somewhat obscure idea of mine. After traveling to approximately three shops that day I took one last look in the garden department of the home store where they did have quite a few not boring ceramic pots, but none were the right size or shape for what I felt was what I needed. Until I saw a brilliantly multi-colored one being sold for an indoor herb garden, but just below it in the same display was more in the color tones I was thinking of, but this one was for growing strawberries; it came with soil and seeds in a plastic bag within it, great I thought! Hubby can have the seeds and I could have the pot, a two-for!
So I easily removed the bag of soil and packet of seeds and scrubbed the pot in warm soapy water, dried it and enthusiastically installed my collection of stainless tools, which I put right in the middle of the stove! It looked just awful, too cluttered, and so guess what? I found the directions on planting the seeds in the pot and it now sits, planted with strawberries on my open bar to the kitchen, and doesn’t look half bad if I do say so myself!

I learned something folks, which is that, on occasion, what we dream or see in our heads, cannot always be realized and perhaps shouldn’t be.

On that educational note for me I will bid you all a pleasant good night and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Shear entertainment, and more...

Yes, that’s what I said, but what could I possibly mean you ask?
But of course, hair cuts today all around!
That’s what I meant, actually Hubby went for his shearing a few days ago, but Skipper and I went today for ours…and he looks just marvelous folks as always.
He hadn’t been this styled out since December, since we have cut-back, get the pun; on how often he goes due to financial cost effectiveness, of cost we did…dud, dah, dum..
In my case though it had been much, much longer and my mopped head showed that caring for it was way too shabby in intent, and lacked concern or interest at all.
Today was errands day and so we went to one of our favorite healthy food places, and the woman across from us had a really cute hair-do, and I asked if it was called, like years ago, the wedge, of Dorothy Hammill fame?
She said she wasn’t sure, but she just came down from New York and that is where she had it done. My heart sunk a wee bit, it was so adorable and she was a large woman too and it did not make her look at all like a pin-head, which seems to be my fear of late with this enormous body of mine, worrying about looking that way, yep, like a PIN HEAD! My heart sunk... with fear, because I wondered; could these local salons know how to do it?
And with me always going to the cheap chain ones?
My hopes were temporarily dashed.
But I had been thinking for a while that I needed something to turn this bummer of a depression into somehow making me feel better about me…looking in the mirror is too horrifying for me, because I literally don’t see me anymore, I see a very short fat ugly old woman, and if I had Alzheimer’s I would absolutely be lost on who that person is?
So I gave this lovely young woman a real challenge in that reasonable chain hairstyling place, and she came through!
I feel pretty, oh so pretty and witty and bright! (La, la, la etc…)
Well, that’s going a bit too far, but you women out there know what I mean, eh?
For less than twenty bucks, I don’t really have me back, but an older shorter fatter and not as pretty facsimile, and I suppose it will do for now!
At least when I now look into the mirror I smile back at that person, whoever she is?
Hubby got the boards needed to start the process of a board walk down to our dock, nails and all. The discount store provided me with a nighty a new blouse, and a very reasonable bathrobe; sadly, I didn’t have one that fit anymore…Company’s coming and we need to share the bathroom, in case you were wondering why!
It’s only polite to be properly attired when they come to visit, right?

We accomplished all we set out to do, including returning those two new books that were due back to the library place of all returns.

So on that upbeat note of due diligence I will bid you all a very good night, and ask you not to forget to count those blessings and we will too!

Keep Charlotte Beautiful the home edition continued today

Hubby was gaining momentum today with the continuance of the beautification of the outer limits of our property. Translation: more yard-work ensued today!

Even Hubby’s next generation of tomato plants were planted, seedlings about six inches tall, a dozen in all. The varieties are Big Boy and Romas. Our lettuce is still abundant, carrots also, and the peas are starting to pod, cucumbers are slower, but growing.


Ah… farming in the south in March, are you all jealous?
Today Hubby also grabbed one of our tangelos from our tree, and we shared its sweet pulp together. The Ponderosa lemons are flowering as well as our Key limes!
The avocado tree somehow appeared untouched by our short nasty weather of the previous months.
Our Gardenia bush, nearly ten feet in height received a major pruning, although none of it was harmed by the awful cold spell, the colder weather seemed to make it become overgrown.
The Hibiscus bushes all but two of the seven appear to be coming back, hooray!
How I love them too, almost as much as my two Gardenia bushes, one is in the front yard another anchoring the pond, which is the one we worked on today. Mostly clearing away the under growth.


I physically did help today with the aid of the rolling garden bench/cart we have, nearly forgot that we had it.
With it, it allowed me to roll around to accomplish everything from weeding to helping to prune the Gardenia bush, not too shabby in the assistant helper department huh, oh make that eh?

Mom’s car made the list of recalls it’s 2008 Cobalt, and so an email went up to her neighbor. He already was aware of it and had plans to take care of it, what a guy!

Last night I got slightly upset with an email we received from a real estate person who Hubby has contacted in trying to find Mom maybe a condo not far from us, and we would then have a professional company, http://www.grannynannies.com/ take care of her a few days a week.
Anywho, the woman emailed back with eight properties that looked just like what Hubby had requested, but she thought it was for his Mother-in-law not his Mother, and that bothered me.
You see, my Mom passed away way back in 1982, and you only get one, you know?
And so I wanted Hubby to straighten her out about the mistake, but he couldn’t see the problem, and didn’t understand at first why it was such a big deal to me but it was.
I composed a return email that was acceptable to both of us, letting the woman know of her mistake and she emailed back that she was sorry!
I also wonder if she wonders if we are heartless palming his Mom off on strangers but I don’t really think that I am physically capable to take care of her properly, if I did I would. And we have not met the realtor in person yet.
As I have said many times before she is physically healthier than her son or I, him being disabled from his back injury and me with my MS and arthritis. But she is eighty-nine and has some form of dementia that creates extreme bouts of forgetfulness, which frustrates Hubby something awful. I just repeat everything to her, which I do sometimes anyway, LOL!

Sorry for not being so funny tonight…tomorrow is another day!
Good night to all and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Welcome to March peeps!

March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb?
Sure hope so.
It’s an idiom you know?
I am speaking about the above theory about March; which is an idiom that is a cultural/regional or artistic manner of speech.
Whew, that’s a mouthful, you know?
I hope that was as plain as day, more like mud… you say!

Today was the day that Hubby decided to make the exterior trees and shrubs pay for their freezing into the uglies, and he tortured them to become presentable once more by severe pruning of their dead heads and twiggy protruding spindly wooden bare grotesque branches.
Got that?
Now, I was sort of like the quarterback in the game, and perhaps with an injury, but from the sidelines, since I couldn’t really get into the game, but I was able to call the plays suitably from there.
Hubby, seemed to really want my input, and so I did do my best judgmental determinations of what should stay and what should go… flora wise…
And I must admit it looks quite a bit better but there is still much more to go…yep go.
Some from that ungodly weather of cold, and dare I say freeze are renewing all by themselves but others are looking a bit more than a little bit dead?
The Princess Bride circa 1987 comes to mind with that line of Billy Crystals'.
Hopefully they are just that…only a little bit dead; time will tell.
I figure by hurricane season we should know for sure, buda, dum, dum.
Some of the palms have yellow fronds but have perked up so there’s the rub, a little dead seems to be an appropriate diagnosis.

My Hubby did an experiment and it worked.
Dinner was a trial by fire, actually electric … what Hubby did is he tried to duplicate the recipe of one of the oldest fast food restaurants (of 88 years), their comfort food burgers.
You know the one with the royal home as their logo and their buildings are also in that shape of where the royals roam.
Anywho, I must admit that his steaming of the little meaty gems with also chopping away those little tiny onions in the food processor and steaming them as well; did work!
The proper combination of pickles and cheese, mustard and ketchup with the tiny buns were too good to be true. You see we don’t have this chain anywhere around here.
But they were a fond memory from our childhoods.
Previously they were only to be had frozen in the warehouse stores, but now we have some more freshly made ones in our own freezer made by Hubby’s own hands!
The secret is still pretty much safe but if I told you a rolling pin was used in the process would that be cheating?
That’s all folks!

I miss those days that we both enjoyed figuring out recipes from restaurants we took pleasure in and on occasion improved upon them to make them at home.
Although, at this point in time of my life I do so prefer going out to be waited on, and kick back without worry of mess up or cleanup, just get up and go home and see my kitchen as I left it; all clean and neat. But wait Hubby did that; but I did make the sides though and cleaned all the dishes in the sink that were there when I had finished…Hubby finished up his; team work is good too!

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