Please forgive...

Last night I didn’t get any sleep to speak of since I was very ill with a sinus headache that felt like a migraine. It was so severe that it had caused extreme stomach distress, vomiting, and every time I tried lying down my head felt as if it would crack open.
I remember getting up a little while after eleven P.M., and being up until five with trying to go back to sleep when I finally gave up, and went into the living room.
By six thirty A.M. I went back to bed, and slept for a while till after nine.

I have been woozy all day and I still cannot sit here that long…so please forgive this is it for tonight, talk to you tomorrow, OK?

Good night folks!
Count those blessings and we will too!

WEATHER AT WAR!

Another earthquake, this time in China, India with a Cyclone, Volcanoes, oh my!
What’s going on?
It seems as if the horrors of 2012 are coming early!
These other weather events cannot even be blamed on ‘El Nino’, so the meteorologists say.
No rhyme or reason to these disastrous happenings, but just terrible luck for us all?

Today I received in the snail mail my 125th Anniversary issue of Good Housekeeping, the one with Michelle Obama on the cover. I wonder how they have been able to keep going all these years. Perhaps they should tell us all that, and teach a class; they are still one of the best deals out there, just ten bucks for a years’ subscription.

They never asked for a hand out of funds yet they managed not to go under during the BIG DEPRESSION of 1929 infamy; so many of their contemporaries had gone under then and since during this electronic information era.
I scanned it briefly, I do so enjoy looking at the home decorating ideas, but even they have gotten less over the years, much more advertising than content I feel.
I suspect that’s what pays the bills, eh?

I could do without all those recipes; I am sure many enjoy them but to me they just make me hungry when I read and I really could do without that!

Have you read any good books lately?
The Sue Grafton alphabet murder mystery series is wonderful for any who enjoy that genre, and I do I have read all of hers to date; can’t wait for her next one to come out.
Its funny but I have gotten Hubby also on that road to her wonderful characters to enjoying them too.
Men, just because a woman wrote it doesn’t mean you can’t read it.
Why I read so many male authors; who are terrific in my book, sorry for the pun, not really! LOL

I made healthy beef stroganoff tonight for dinner with no egg wide noodles, lean beef pounded and cut tiny, fat free sour cream, sodium free beef bullion, sliced mushrooms, garlic, and onions, extra virgin olive oil with I can’t believe it’s not butter instead of butter. Anything can be made to be healthy if you just think on it for a few minutes. Watch those noodles though, although they are yolk free, the carbs are still rather high 14%, and so go easy on them. Recently the news reported women especially have to watch those carbs due to the heart unhealthy risk.

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and women those carbs and we will too, me that is, for carbs but blessings we both will since high carbs don’t seem to hurt men so much; who knows why that is...

How are you?

It’s about time I asked, eh?
Yes, many of these things called Blogs have been about me.
Well, folks this is MY BLOG!
Get your own if you want it to be about you, just kidding!
Write back and fill me in on you, OK?

How do we know that people approve of us?
A provocative question, huh?

I put the ‘huh’, since I doubt anyone but an American would ask that.
We have been called ‘ugly’, while in our travels, mostly I suspect since we appear not to accept the conventional mores of any other different society, and try for others to be able to understand our ways more often than not even when on their turf, as guests in their country. How disrespectful of us, and quite ugly, although, today, I think that has changed, at least I do hope so. To be honest it has been decades since I traveled abroad.

Politeness is something that has unfortunately gone by the wayside. We see this not only in children forgetting to say please and thank you, but many adults not acknowledging positive behavior or interest in helping others.

Neighbors were once the mainstay of every community, but with the advent of our most recent economic declines, many neighborhoods are splattered with empty homes due to foreclosures or whatnot and consequently there are acres of no others to commune with sadly.

As annoying as it used to be the only home owner with people moving out of homes that they too owned and now turning around and making them into rentals. But today, I do so relish any neighbors in any socioeconomic situation.

Earlier today, this morning actually, I spoke with a gentleman in our county code enforcement department about a derelict home only three lots from ours that had a broken window. Hubby went to check it out since he is retired law enforcement. He wanted to make sure nothing nefarious was going on in there.

So many stories have been on the news of late about Meth, Crack and Weed homes coming out of such neglected homes.
I was also told that we have over six thousand such empty homes in our county, just dreadful, and oh so sad too!
This one has had the lawn mowed regularly and other than the broken front side window and a front picture window with what looks like a bullet hole in it, it wouldn’t have been so obvious to me, who knows if anyone else cares.
Since the code enforcer said no one else had complained.
Hubby did report that the entire home had been gutted of everything including all the electric and plumbing.

Fortunately, at this time it is the minority of emptiness on our circular block, which is good in my book. Since people are taking up residence in a domicile here or there which makes it harder for the criminal element to do whatever they want without somebody noticing!

I am so sure that we around the country or even the world are suffering similar problems in areas too, and so I think we should all make a concerted effort to find out how to solve this problem.

On that glimmer of an idea I shall bid you all a very good night and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Brain freeze to all who...

Have you ever thought you were getting some form of memory loss and then you realized that it only happens every once and while, not daily, or frequently enough to count…yet.

Most of us have forgotten where we put this or that, or who that was that did such and such whenever that was, got that?

It’s normal to some degree that we of the maturity generation hearing through the grapevine, when we think we actually did HEAR, but when does it become a problem that we should really genuinely be worrying about?

Oh don’t do that, worry that is, it only makes your memory burp into disastrous forgetfulness! Stress has proven to create fear and fear can make you forget everything…even your own name!

But when should one be a wee bit concerned?
I don’t know I am not the right person to ask.
I do believe it takes a neurologist to diagnosis clinical forgetfulness or dementia.

And so all I can do is wonder if forgetting common words while engaged in a general conversation should be of troubling concern for me or my peers around me?
It’s a wee bit of food for thought or try hard to remember, eh?

I just got distracted, so sorry, but two Grackles were doing a noisy mating dance, rather gracefully, in the backyard under our bird feeder, and it was really very cute.
Oh for those of you who don’t know the species, ‘Grackles’, are medium sized black birds that could be mistaken for crows the only difference is they have yellow eyes.
We do have a perfect habitat for birds with our feeder with the baffle to prevent the squirrel, our one and only one, I think, from getting the seed, a birdbath, and our fish pond with fountain and waterfall.
Many an afternoon Hubby is out there under our lanai on the patio reading and bird watching.
I, on the other hand would love to be out more but darn with my MS the temperature fluctuations make my spasms go kefluey, Tobism sorry! Plus one of my medications has restrictions about sun exposure; oh that’s me…so much fun!

Any-who today we went back to the grocery; I know we were just there, weren’t we?
Gosh we eat often and a lot. LOL
Anyway, our fish monger in the store has a child who has Autism, and so I suggested he contact Autism Speaks, autismspeaks.org, for helpful information since he said that his daughter lost so many of her services. We all should become advocates for anything we believe in. When it hits home that’s when we automatically get fired up rightfully so, now all my fire has turned into helping the others network for themselves.

Just had a slight writing break due to chest pains, most likely caused by gas, since I am back here now. If it was something serious I wouldn’t be here, now would I? LOL

On that fascinating pronouncement I will bid you all a good night and to all count your blessings and we will too!


PS another interesting happening just occurred with our Skipper, our Bichon Frise, he has lately been barking at nothing that we can see; he did just now, and me, I also in that same vein have thought I heard things too….ooh, ooh … that proved to be nothing. I told Hubby that perhaps Skipper has medium/psychic abilities, and mine must be extra larges LOL!

Two thumbs up!

The Robin Cook book, ‘Intervention’, proved to be a very good read folks! It was finished with relish earlier today.
Side note: Robin Cook lives in Florida now; he’s one of our own.

Yesterday, we had something enter our backyard shed and the only reason we think that we know that is because things were knocked over in it, so Hubby did report to me. And so Hubby went out during our rain storm and reopened the door to allow whatever critter was in it was able to leave, but silly us, would you go out in a rain storm if you had a dry shed to stay in? The shed does have quite a few hiding spaces in there with all its stuff, and so whatever is in there is probably hiding quite well.
So the door was soon closed once more by none other than Hubby.

And Hubby felt the need to devise a Rube Goldberg-ish trap for our little trespasser to knock over on he/she’s exit in case we weren’t watching on that occasion. The door is set three quarters of the way closed with this block in the doorway that once triggered just a light piece of plastic about the size of a shirt cardboard will fall over, simplicity at its finest. But so far nothing has happened.
Hubby figures that the culprit got in when he was mowing the lawn yesterday.
He does have a tendency to leave doors open; that is the shed’s and garage’s side door, and I always worry about critters trying to make their homes inside.

I do harbor a bad memory of that rodent getting in there, the garage, and then the rest is history as they say!

Memories can be wonderful too though especially when you see a photo of someone you recall from your past in a good way. I had the joy of seeing an entire family I basically grew up with their picture was posted on my Facebook site oh what fond memories that brought back!

Sadly, in devastation of national natural disasters many of us forget that those photos cannot be replaced, and so I recommend making copies and putting them in very safe place or mailing them far away to someone you trust.

I guess since we are getting closer to our hurricane season this June first marking the beginning, a little over six weeks away, it is making me go into psychological preparation mode, since this year the country and pretty much all over the world has had with all those unfortunate natural disasters. They are saying this year may be bad for us in the gulf coast area too with our hurricane threats once again, if interested to see you can: go to copy and paste this site: http://www.mahalo.com/2010-hurricane-season-forecast

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


PS Last night was movie night here, and we saw Sherlock Holmes, it was very good!

Who are you?

Did you ever wonder to whom you were speaking when you chose to speak to a representative of a building or conglomerate?
Now they are both quite different things entirely.
A building is an architectural structure without a mouth, limbs or a soul, and conglomerate is a business…I guess could also be a mouth-less, limbless, and soulless entity if run improperly. LOL

Buildings on the one hand contain people within them and I suspect most conglomerates do too, sure they do, wink, wink. In this day and age who really knows the answer to that one.

Oddly enough I have found myself speaking to a building over the last two days, well, I suppose most of you are wondering how that could be, because buildings don’t talk, or do they?

This one was unidentifiable since no human name was given to me but yet I carried on a Facebook conversation back and forth for the last two days with this disembodied voice/building.
How odd you say!
Yep, I agree.
And so a few minutes ago I laid the law down to that building, which, by the way is our Cultural Center by non human name, and questioned that nobody on whom they might perhaps be, human wise that is, and so far no info has changed hands.
Maybe it would be a security breech?
I have all the time in the world to wait them out, after all I am retired.

Moving on … A few days ago I promised I had another project in the works and I do.
You see, as a consumer like all of us I feel the need to comment on products when they are good or not so good, and I have always enjoyed writing a good letter to the powers that be letting them know those feelings, we all should do that you know.

Feedback is the technical term that they enjoy calling it.
I have been known to help large companies/conglomerates know when the product on the market is doing what they claim or falling short of those expectations.
Freedom of speech and all that and the need to be a responsible consumer, after all money aint what it used to be, and everything we consume these days is not by any means cheap!
Consequently, I have received refunds, rebates and freebies by expressing these assertive opinions, and I can’t say that I am not happy to be doing what I consider a watchdog type service for those too timid perhaps to speak up for themselves.

Most recently my synthetic marble sink and counter top company, which has been keeping in touch with me on my most recent problem, a stained, scratched and hairline cracked sink that has a ten year warranty, and was installed professionally after Hurricane Charley in December of 2004. I started the contact of this company on this past Thursday through emails and calling their 800 number as I was told to. In the email I explained the situation about the kitchen sink’s condition and they gave me the phone number of a call center that was oddly enough located in California, the first hint was when I left my call back info at nine in the morning since they were not open yet, and they said they didn’t open till nine PST. I say oddly enough because they needed my zip code to be able to set me up with someone in my area; we live on the south west coast of Florida not the west coast of the country?

But their system was telling them I lived in Seattle Washington, and I had to argue with them that it was wrong! Then they told me I needed a claim number, and I said I didn’t have one, no one gave me one. And so they gave me the toll free number for the warranty department in Delaware, and to be honest the man there was very nice and said that all I needed was my invoice from the sale four years ago, which I did find after a half hour of looking with Hubby’s help and emailed it to him after I scanned it, this was on Friday evening. I suspect they are closed for the weekend. He did say I needed that to get a new sink. To be honest I just want mine fixed, I don’t want to be without a sink for who knows how long! You see, my sink is molded into one piece with my counter top and that would be a disaster if they had to remove the whole thing! He did say that maybe it could be fixed.

Anywho that’s what I do with my simple life, when I am not going out or reading like today. I will be recommending that Robin Cook book, Intervention, to all of you it has everything in it you can imagine, similarities to an Indiana Jones movie, DaVinci Code one, and anyone of Cook's previous medical mysteries all incorporated into one hard to put down novel! Let’s put it this way I am currently on page 395 since starting it yesterday and I can’t wait to finish to know the ending! That means only a little less than two hundred pages left.

On that good note of intrigue I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessing and we will too!

Mildness of the climate in the home was the sensation of the feeling of the day!

Huh? In other words, calmness was here today!
BORING! You all say well maybe not; but to have peace in any form is a plus in these anxious times, right?

I started reading my book today that is one of Robin Cook’s his newest called, Intervention; I believe it is his newest, at least it was in the new book section of the library, and they don’t lie, do they?

My relaxation techniques are basically vegging-out by watching the idiot box also, going back and forth from the TV to the book is how I roll; these days there isn’t much else in my repertoire.

That is unless Hubby or I decide we are going out to some absolute destination for necessities, fun or education purposes.

We are still conserving gas although the newest low/high is really confusing since it actually fluctuates almost daily, got that?

This weekend at our little municipal airport we have our annual air show going on, but we aren’t going. You see it is twenty bucks a head, and when Hubby used to be a deputy and he would be usually working the air show I was allowed in for free. And when we lived in south Jersey, in Lacey Township, we lived about twenty minutes south of Lakehurst and that too was free and we would take our sons to that one.
So I guess we are spoiled due to all those freebies.

The military can’t charge since they are supported by us, the taxpayers; sort of like the Smithsonian’s, which are also still free, I think! We used to go there a few times a year when we lived in NJ, only five and half hours from there by car.

Actually it doesn’t really matter anyway since we seem to live right below their flight pattern and all we have to do is go outside and look up! LOL

Have you ever wanted something different for diner or lunch or even breakfast and couldn’t come up with something new or unique? I used to find thinking about important things was at times a very interesting challenge in problem solving, but this is just lame and ridiculous, this is what I have been lowered to in my excitement scale in life? OH NO!
Sometimes I feel that I should be doing something rewarding and important like I used to do, but then my body says forget it! DAMN!

Not so funny when its your count on one and only body that you thought you had been taking care of, eating lots of fruits and veggies, used to go to the gym one and half hours a day, or race walk three miles in forty minutes, quit smoking nearly four years ago, and this is how I am being repaid with this shell of yuck! Darn, there should have been a healthy reward for me not this.

If only I could figure out how to change what has happened, since theoretically I do know what to do, besides all that working out I was a dancer too, took it for about twelve years. Knowing what has to be done is frustrating, since in my home I basically even have a home gym too, with a stationary bike, treadmill, and free weights, not to mention a backyard pool. But I was told more exercise will make my already destroyed bones and muscles only get worse, being pre-existing with no insurance to repair the damage that is my biggest fear to try any of it, since a doctor told me that.

I had been walking up until about two years ago when the pain from my hips became so severe I couldn’t sleep at night and that is when the doctor told me it’s a no go. The old story if it hurts when you do that then don’t do that! And pain meds for me either don’t work or cause bleeding ulcers, so that is where the problem lies or as I like to say up a creek without a paddle, not really I don't like to say that but it is accurate.

If any of you out there have any ideas please tell me what I should do?
I have run out of ideas.

On that pathetic plea; I will wish you all a good night and to all count those blessings and we will too!