Wow what a ride! And I thought roller coasters were only in amusement parks!

Did you watch the stock market today?
What a ride, huh?
Not for the feint hearted.
Happy that we are no longer involved.
Too many losses for us way back in the ’89 crash!

In a way that was a good thing that we were already poor when the economy tanked this time and so we didn’t lose anything! LOL, not really… losing some bucks would have been nice to be able to have a bit of complaining rights, but alas we don’t!
And as far as the housing market goes we bought our little gem of a retirement home back in 1998 cheap and before that also went under with our definite scaling down mantra in place, due to; lesser income and my ills since I was not working by then for four years already and Hubby was a rookie cop for those first few years, and salaries were disgracefully pitifully low, now I believe they start them much higher; at least I do hope so!

Anywho, we managed and eventually adjusted to our living and learning that less was a fine manageable lifestyle and much less stressful!

When we were younger we had the big home and everything anyone could want and our sons never needed anything, since they too had it all.
I suppose the fact that they were both well educated and on their own by the time we scaled down made our decision to miniaturize our lives that much easier.

Oh don’t get me wrong we are still living large by many people’s standards.
And we are just right for us and have more than enough for what our daily needs require.
Few get the idea of the simple life being that.
But we did.

Hindsight is twenty-twenty the expression goes, and for once I suppose that’s exactly what this all is.

I’m not bragging, no, I am thinking out loud and thankful for we have made way too many mistakes in our lives over the nearly forty years of our marriage.
For once this seems to have been all our right choices.
Boy, could I tell you stories of all those past wrong choices and maybe I will if the trauma of them hasn’t blocked them all from my mind.

Who knows some day I may just write all those horrendous recalls down in this Blog and scare the pants off of you all!

And so when I say I can appreciate the situations of others in those difficulties I am speaking from my heart and soul and personal knowledge of those experiences.
Our lives have not been that dissimilar to our stock market’s; and that’s no exaggeration believe me!

On that intriguing closing sentence I will bid you all a very good night and suggest for you all to count your blessings and we will too!

PS Did you all hear? The latest idea to handle the oil spill is to form oil boom posses with boaters joining the water brigade; not too farfetched and could work!

Cinco de Mayo Amigos!

Hola!

Hope yours will only get better as the day goes on…

Since we are not much for going out at night we decided to do lunch and while we did not go to the Chihuahua fast food place we did go to another chain of a wee bit higher caliber, no offense to the other; a Southwest cuisine was in the offering at this particular one.

And so when in doubt order chicken, right?
Mine was basically arroz con pollo, chicken and rice but jazzed up with lotsa of this and that. I think there were anywhere from two types of beans to three to five different types of hot peppers, hmm I was in my glory, how I do love them and also other salad type items served in a bowl. Hubby had two chicken tacos and both meals came with Tostitos and they also had a bar like area that provided you with your choice of salsas. I had my iced unsweet tea and hubby had his soda and all of these satisfying yummies for would you believe, less than ten bucks! Ah fast food… can’t beat it in a crunch or for lunch or a hunch; sorry for the Doctor Seuss-isms, nah they were actually quite enjoyable. LOL

Got to wear my new outfit purchased yesterday, I think it’s the first time in years that Hubby and I looked like we might be together since I was back in my jeans jumper and gauzy blouse, and he in his jean shorts and striped denim shirt. I think we looked similar.

After lunch we opted for stopping by the home warehouse store. Hubby wanted to check some prices on a possible project. You see… years ago way back in New Jersey he built for our swimming pool up there a solar panel and made one for our neighbor too, way back in the 1980’s, and this neighbor who I still keep in contact with by email said that his still works!

Hubby is somewhat of a Rube Goldberg with the fact that he has used unconventional items to make things that we need or just might like, thus being the ultimate recyclers.
And so with that in mind he did his own financial feasibility study to see if it was not only possible but financially practical in cost effectiveness to make another homemade solar panel for our use once again.
Hubby had eight years of drafting and five years of engineering, and you thought he was just another pretty face, ha!

Although, we do have those professional solar people coming to crunch their numbers this coming Tuesday, but you know the saying if it sounds too good to be true...then it most likely is! They promise no out of pocket monies up front, and so we are putting together a back up plan. With this summer/heat wave hitting us now the pool doesn’t need them but since it is my only decent form of exercise this is for those three or four months that I can’t use the pool!
Last year was my longest swim season ever from April to November with just the un-leaky solar panels and the solar blanket, but now the panels are toast.
And so our do-it-yourself mode has kicked in.
But we will hear them out those pros; maybe it will be true and possible.

We are not newbies off a turnip truck as I have said before so we will keep level heads in our decisions.

On that note I will bid you a very festive night if you so choose and count those blessings and we will too!

Our day was busy, splashy, smelly, slow and interesting...

Have I gotten your attention?
I was very busy this morning doing this and that around the house; I suppose it could be called housekeeping, but there are some who might argue that fact. Alright try the word straightening everything up?

Then our pool came up to temperature quite early; actually by nine A.M. and it was…
drum roll please… already up to eighty-seven degrees, all because we have been having this heat wave!

Today I had my pool buddy once again, and he is my favorite in the four-legged variety, Skipper, our Bichon Frise who by the way... DOES NOT SHED! That’s why he needs a haircut every six to eight weeks! So as far as the pool goes, he causes no filter issues, which is great.
Skipper knows where the steps are and uses them for his entrée and exit, although when in the deep end I have also taught him how to go up off the ladder to exit. He loves for me to hold him or race him from the steps to the end of the pool, which is a very tiny one, by the way. He also loves for me to hold him like a baby and spin him slowly around or make silly swimming noises, silly, huh?Oh, by the way the smelly part of this story is… THE WET DOG!

After lunch we went out today to pick up one of my prescriptions and then over to the discount store where I found a few pieces of cute clothing, a denim jumper with a belt, and white button down short sleeve pocketed gauzy shirt to wear over it. I can’t try on things in the stores anymore so I was hopeful that I found the right size, which I did. The two pieces were only twenty six bucks! Also found a cotton black and white print to wear over the black jumper I had at home, it too was only twelve bucks and now my wardrobe is going that much further.
Looking nice at this size has been somewhat of a challenge but I do want to, I was such a clothes horse when I was thin and trim.
I am one of those people who truly believes when you look good you feel good, which allows you also to do good!
My theory was proven by the cancer society when they gave chemo patients wigs to wear, and had them made up with make-up, they found the beauty they feared they had lost, and many smiles followed.
This proven theory of mine has also on occasion been responsible for remissions, I know you are saying that seems a bit farfetched…Well, the idea is that a positive frame of mind can do marvelous things including aid in curative powers!

When ever I am tired I prefer to call up and order in, do any of you feel that way?
Tonight I did just that, and that too makes me feel less stressed.

On that note of something to think about I will bid you all a very good night and to all suggest that you count those blessings and we will too!

Dead is so permanent...

The news is carrying the horror stories of the failures to try and cap off the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and today was the day of the first deaths to be counted due to this manmade pollution, dozens of sea turtles are washing up on shore in the Mississippi area.
The turtles from the outside look completely normal but the wildlife people are presuming that they have ingested oil filled foods of fish and the like.

Sadly we all knew the time would come to see this and we all know that no one is standing around twiddling their thumbs watching the oil escape into our beautiful scenic and economically fulfilling waters being destroyed.
Amounts of the free for all flow have been reported from one thousand to a hundred thousand gallons a day, and each news media franchise has their own numbers.
All I know is that it is NOT good whether it is any of those above mentioned numbers!

Lee and Collier Counties to our south here in Charlotte County Florida, have devised plans already for when it comes to their shores. Charlotte on the other hand has not gotten on the news to let us know what they plan for us, and we are even a wee bit closer to the actual spill!
I do know that all the Emergency Management Facilities had a conference call today with our Governor Crist, who held a news conference at noon for all of us Floridians to see, although many were probably at work or school accept the unemployed and retired like us. He poignantly stated that “we should all prepare for the worst but hope for the best”. Now that I see that in print isn’t that the same lame stuff everyone pipes in when they have no idea what to do and since that is all we as Floridians can do?
It’s not like a hurricane that we can evacuate from, since we aren’t even sure exactly what is going to happen here, yet if anything.

BP is saying that they have a few ideas of trying a dome like cap, or to drill another side well and shut it off from there. Problems are they have never done that dome thing ever at a depth of five thousand feet and they have no idea if it will work since it is only a theory that it should, and the other idea could take as long as two to three months to build by robotics!

News keeps telling us it will hit Florida the only question is when and where, whoa mine too! To be fair only a soothsayer could know for sure even with wind and water current directions they are all still just guessing, since those things change hourly, daily and weekly.

Now to the practical side of this, tourism, the reality of that realization is way too scary for our already sadly compromised economy here.
Now Governor Crist is extending the National Guard coverage to Sarasota County, just above us to our north.

Hypocrisy is us we all know there is no way at this point with our energy needs that we could possibly all switch to anymore Green ideas for transportation and utility needs. Why it was less than a month ago that two major governors were saying drill, drill, drill baby!
My fear was that they were sending Palin clones to other states, but thankfully Governor Schwarzenegger of California, duh, as if you didn’t know who he was, has seen the light and changed his mind today and I know our Governor Crist has too!
If the United States government will follow the trend, please Mr. President we Gulf Coasters beg of you!
Nature’s wrath is again just around the corner next month is hurricane season; why then must we endure manmade mistakes?

Can you imagine if a hurricane was thrown into this mess, then where would all that oil go to?

Not to make little of our friends to our north between tornadoes and flooding the human deaths of dozens has been horrendously significant!
What did we all do to create all these terrible happenings folks!
It’s so scary not knowing what might come next!
Be careful peeps and keep the news in your daily living to know.

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


PS Good night, sleep tight, dear sweet Georgy Girl, for Lynn Redgrave who portrayed you, has lost her seven year battle with breast cancer and has passed on to a better place I am sure but only at the tender age of sixty-seven.
Footnote: My niece that was my eldest and that had died back in 2006 at the age of 50, from colon cancer and I years ago, in our teens since we were only five years apart, me being the elder, entered a talent contest where she sang the song Georgy Girl and I danced to it, and so that movie has such fond memories to me.

The water came up to temperature earlier than expected today and so...

I was ready when it was and started my exercise program by eleven A.M., and as promised we had another scorcher of a day.
Breakfast was made by me and so Hubby made lunch and brought it out to me, and you know I felt like a Queen being served on our patio by my handsome Hubby!

Life can be great even if it’s simple, and ours is.
Complications sometimes cause anxiety.
Not looking for trouble therefore not finding any is the best way to handle living in peaceful co-existence.

Tonight we shared in the making of dinner, which consisted of leftover turkey meatloaf turned into pasta meat sauce with embellishments of added spices of oregano, basil and garlic as well as onions sautéed in extra virgin olive oil. Our heart healthy jar mix comes up flat tasting in my book and so we only add the best ingredients to jazz it up. To my own plate I add a little bit more a little bit of the pecorino, which is the hot pepper flakes that Hubby doesn’t care for, but we both top most all pasta dishes with parmesan, and tonight our pasta was angel hair, and on the side a multi veggie fresh tossed salad.

I made garlic bread from our five grain bread slices, with the olive oil, the parmesan, and garlic of course!

Dinner was simple and elegant though too.

Exhaustion came upon me once out of the shower this afternoon and again I could not keep my eyes open and so I felt the need to grab a few winks by two thirty. But this time Hubby was asking me when I should be awoken and we agreed within a half an hour, unfortunately it was not good enough since I was till extremely tired on the first wake-up call, and again agreed to have him try again in another half hour.
I did manage to rise at three thirty for the second call but I was still groggy and I suggested a cup of coffee, which Hubby was kind enough to get for me while I was nestled in my chair in the living room covered by a blanket because for some reason I was freezing! It was in the nineties outside, and inside the thermostat was set on seventy-nine and then because of the chill it had been moved up to eighty.
And even though I had dressed ridiculously warmly after my shower in sweat pants and blouse with sleeves I was shivering so I pulled the throw over me in my chair, how odd?

Well, I am happy to say that has all diminished by this hour, and I am once again comfortable in my own skin and in our home.

Last night, movie night we opted out to watch New Moon and it was very enjoyable.

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

Our swimming pool called to me today and I answered!

It’s a wee bit later than last year for my first dip into our pool, but blame it on this crazy weather that we had over our too long cold spell, not me!

Luxury was the name of the game once the pool was hovering around eighty-three then a short trip to eighty-four degrees and finally it eventually succumbed to the eighty-five that I needed for me to feel comfortable!
And so by around one P.M., I was dipping my tootsies into the cool calm waters on my way to the entrée into the realm of pleasant divine exercise without harm to life or limb.

Pool exercise or water aerobics, Acquacize is truly the only safe way to move those limbs of mine without creating more damage and halleluiah I am in that mode for the next few months, maybe even until November like last year; now wouldn’t that be great?

Most people in my age range or I should say in the Baby Boomer sect, should exercise daily for at least a half an hour. The best and most inexpensive forms are walking, bicycling, and swimming, if you have your own swimming pool available or sometimes a Y or public one!

The next few days we have been told we will be hitting some truly high numbers on the temperature gage, the nineties! And so even though our solar panels are toast, the solar blanket did its job for today, and I am pretty darn sure that the weather or Mother Nature will do it from now on or at least till the fall that is keep the temperature I need for comfort in the pool. It is not an obscure number; you see it is the recommended temperature for when I taught Acquacize as a certified instructor for the Arthritis Foundation, but oddly enough the National Multiple Sclerosis Society has the same recommendation for comfort, too hot or too cold can cause many significant problems from heart attacks, strokes etcetera from too hot, and too cold or too hot causes muscular spasms for MS, and too cold for arthritis is very hard and harmful on the joints.

Sounds silly to some I am sure.
I can think of all those extremely hardy people in their Polar Bear Clubs going into that frosty icy water, hopefully they don’t have any underlying medical conditions!
What about hot tubs and hot springs?
I suppose for most with arthritis it is beneficial, but not if you have a bad heart or high blood pressure, and with MS too hot causes those nasty spasms, and don’t forget that bacteria is notorious in hot water, which means in a hot tub more chemicals… we know that more chemicals means…well, you know what it means.
Sorry to be Debbie Downer on all that, but those are the facts.

Tonight is the Kentucky Derby, are you going to watch?
It has become a tradition in our home and this year we even bought the fixings for Mint Juleps, how about that? For a whole two minute race!
Update: Calvin Borel wins again this time on Super Saver! He won last year on Mine that Bird.

After all that revelry it will be movie night once again in our abode, and the choices tonight are, ‘It’s Complicated’ and ‘The Twilight Saga, New Moon’.

What an exciting interesting day. LOL Bet you wish you were us…LOL

On that enormously silly note we will bid you all a very pleasant good night and to all count those blessings and we will too!
And pray for those powers that be to figure out how to stop that gusher of oil to stop pumping in the gulf!

PS Today we proclaimed it to be International Sons Day!
And sent our sons cards in honor of this day; now we wait to hear their reactions...

Today I went back to the eye doc and found out....

That I did have a detachment but not of the retina a much less serious one that has no negative affects on your eye sight to speak of unless… what it says below the good stuff actually happens, but not to worry I was told…
A vitreous detachment.
Copy and paste the below site:
http://www.nei.nih.gov/health/vitreous/vitreous.asp#1

And so you all knowing me you will also know that I NEVER EVER worry! LOL
I thought the information above was important enough to share with all of you so if any of that happens to you, you do know what to do, OK? Don’t thank me now but if later it helps you in anyway just let me know, OK?

Oh the day has been continuing in that exciting vein.
I again did wake up in time to enter the contest, but did not win since all five days worth of winners are announced on their site, and I did check.

After the eye doc we went to the warehouse club since we had been invited in there for a food tasting and so we went as members for us it was free.
We really thought it would be more in the sustenance department but alas it wasn’t any different than their usual samples of this and that.

And so we decided to grab a bite on the way home after we did buy our coffee, water and the like. But all the restaurants were full up? Odd since most all of our snowbirds have already left for the north and their other homes.
And so we went through the golden arches drive thru and I got a salad and Hubby got his burger and fries, and we ate peacefully at home.

This afternoon Hubby was kind enough to finish the shopping up at the grocery due to my exhaustion by the afternoon.
And when he got home he decided to go out to the lanai to read for a while’s break from his hectic day.
And he noticed our adjacent neighbor sitting under the Royal palm tree of our across the canal Canadian gone home to Montreal neighbors and she was taking pictures of something in the canal she told Hubby!
When asked what she said that she had been watching an alligator. Now we have been living on this saltwater canal for nearly twelve years and we have only seen maybe two or three gators actually come down it, and so this was an unusual and scary sight!
She was concerned for her dogs since she only has rip rap on her side of the canal, but we have a seawall and yet I still worry for little Skipper because he is fearless and nosey!
Hubby has taken a few picture of the vicious beast and I have sent its mug shot on to friends and family to see!
I do this quite often with other wildlife, which have been many living on the water as we do.
I used to think our otter who I called Otto was so cute and we had taken many pictures of him, until it made it on the news about a half an hour north of here in Venice that an elderly man was attacked viciously by being bitten several times by a rabid one!

It is a joy to watch the many different species of birds we see daily and so far they have been a joy; hopefully they will continue, but I don’t forget the herons that ate our pond fish, which was definitely NOT good!
Oh well, even in the animal kingdom there is good and bad too!

This morning while reading the paper, the editorial comments I got fired up again with the stupidity of someone thinking that people wanting health care reform are looking for freebies; well you can bet I wrote my own editorial submission countering his stupid comments and hopefully he will be set straight!

Now this disaster of the oil spill in the gulf is scaring the bejeebers out of us all here, and rightfully so, according to the professionals it could be much worse than the Exxon Valdez of yore up by Alaska, and we all can remember that horror!
Let us pray that is not the case since that will definitely be an environmental catastrophe unlike any we could ever imagine!

On that something to think about informative dissertation I will bid you all a very good night and to all count those blessings and we will too!