Life goes on...

People ask one another for help daily, especially people like me.
It does become embarrassing when you find yourself doing it so often, but in truth you realize what choice do you have?
It’s not unheard of when folks have been together for many years, spouses, that one could be so attuned to the other’s needs that they can anticipate the other before the wants or need is spoken aloud.
Wow, those people are true soul mates.
And may be in my unrealistic desires and not one I can lay claim to.
Yep, you got it!
Hubby continues to go by the line, ‘just ask’.
So that is what I have found myself doing, but for someone who had not ever been a dependent in their life it is still after all the time that has passed to do it, not as simple as he suggests.
Repetitive and annoying is what I feel like when I have to keep asking.
It is shameful in my book to be needing to be helped so much, and needing to ask for that help so often, but I am being redundant, aren’t I?
Sadly on this topic is the one we butt heads over the most.

As days go on… my inabilities or as well as my many medications cause me to have quite a few side affects too.
That cause irritability, weight gain and besides the normal MS dizziness I have also Ataxia and medicinally caused dizziness. It’s a lose, lose situation some days.
Lately my stomach has been causing me grief but I have a long history of stomach disorders too.
Let’s face it, I am a mess!
Right now my back is acting up too and so this may be a shorty tonight…

Any-who… on the positive side…,
People are so wonderful out in the world on the short term.
They smile when I do, and talk when I do too.
On Facebook I have two friends that I wished a happy birthday to this week and they reacted so lovely in thanking me that I must say it made me smile, but sadly they couldn’t see it.
Who doesn’t enjoy making other people happy has never done it!

I suppose that is what I miss the most is feeling the good feeling of making others happy with helping others.
Oh what a feeling!
That’s’ why working non-profit as a volunteer is so rewarding.
But today once again I did sign a message that will be going to congress on a vote to help persuade them to help people with MS.
I so enjoy online advocacy which I still can do.
And I did this time have the good sense to pass it on to a couple of others with MS and hopefully they will also get involved this easy way.

Not doing well… pain sitting once again and so I will bid you all a very happy night and to all count those blessings and share those overages please and we will too!

And next time be here or be square, OK?

What's up with that?

So many people remind me how stupid we all can be at times…myself included... but not this time…
Why just the other day I shut off the national news when the poll they were showing stated that 48% were ‘for’ something while the other 54% were ‘against’ it, huh? I get 102% and I think that’s not kosher, do you?
I also cannot understand when anyone insists that they will put out an effort of 110% into anything?
Last time I checked 100% is as far as you can go on percentages, but I could be wrong, but on what planet I ask you?

Violence is worse than ever and perhaps Whoopee Goldberg does have it right since we all seem to have forgotten common courtesies when in public like allowing others to go ahead of you and NOT talking loudly on a cell phone while in a public place especially in a restaurant when others are eating there too. (To be more definite with my feelings I do find myself shaking my head in agreement with Ms. Goldberg regularly when she voices her opinions on the View.)
People have no patience for others wasting their precious time, which explains the rise in automobile accidents with road rage, not to mention texting and talking behind the wheel too! Although, now their claiming that since many states have stepped up to the plate to make it illegal to text while driving there have been more crashes from people trying to hide this their unnecessary dangerous obsession!
Turn off those phones folks let it go to voice mail and once you get to your destination, before you get out of your car, listen to them and return them while still in your automobile in the parking lot space, no harm, and no foul; try it you might even like it.
The sheer fact you will no longer be a danger to yourself or others should be quite a powerful incentive, huh?

Pet peeves are sometimes just kept to ourselves until someone rubs us the wrong way.
Does that mean that we are oh so polite or just chicken to express our true feelings?
I also have never understood what makes one man be such a gentleman while others seem to not have a clue.
Does it all stem back to the woman’s movement for equal rights or the downfall of men everywhere not wanting to lower themselves to making an independent woman feel lesser than; or perhaps the downfall of parents not teaching our children to be kinder to the opposite sex or the elderly or the infirm?
Used to be the scouts taught that or mom’s their sons, but hardly ever father’s their sons.
Even when I was a younger healthier woman I would stand on public transportation for an older person or pregnant woman or someone with an aide for walking like a cane or walker; I would even being a woman open a door for another person older or ill or just if I got there first.
You know I can’t remember being taught that, wait oh yes, Goofus and Gallant in those Highlights for Children’s magazines, are they still around? You would be pretty sure that they aren’t with the way things have gone down the tubes with common decency being in so much jeopardy! They taught a few generations by simplicity at its finest what the proper way to handle any situation was. How we all loved those guys…and we used to take turns reading each character’s lines like we were them. Just like the comics on Sundays! Boy did we know how to have fun or what?
Have any of you noticed how so many people including our older selves have forgotten how to spell at times? I think it has a lot to do with advertising taking that poetic license to do whatever they want to do and create in all of our minds.
Lying to children and spouses are also projected into commercials.
Most recently that one with the mom who says to her daughter that she didn’t borrow her green blouse, and then rushes upstairs to dig it out of the hamper to wash it and replace it in child’s room with still no confession?
What’s with that?
And those older ads with the mother who pretends she made her cookies from scratch by sprinkling flour all over herself when they were really from a box?
Why?
Those are small things in the bigger picture of things but still it says it’s OK, hmmm? Do you really think so?


Tonight I hope I left you with a bit of food for thought and the possibility to try to come up with some solutions to these ridiculous faux pas of us all.

On that note of needing to act to make a difference little by little I will wish you all a very happy good night to all and to all count those blessings and share the overages and we will too!

And next time be here or be square, OK?

Doing something just for fun, even though you know if it tastes this good it can't be good for you!

Today I did something I do maybe two or three times a year these days, and what is that you curiously ask?
Why folks, make cookies!
Since our cookie monster sons have been grown and flew the coop the desire to make any baked goods seems over indulgent and sometimes a wee bit silly for two grown ups; especially with this gal being way too much in the additional LBS.!
But I went and did it anyway and it was rather fun, I made from scratch peanut butter cookies and WOW, Hubby took over after I made the batter and finished up with the placement of the one inch rolled in sugar balls that had to be squished with the fork tines in a criss cross pattern on the cookie sheet, wasn’t that nice of him, since by then I was exhausted?
And they were mmmmmm, mmmmmm good too if I do say so myself or Hubby will be happy to tell you!

Moving on…any-who…
Today I thought I would try asking another provocative question on my Facebook page, but this time I am seriously needing some real honest feedback because this election coming up next month has baffled me on who I should vote for, especially for our new state governor, numero uno important, in-charge peep.

All the commercials trying to entice us to vote for him or her, and yes we have a woman running against a man or vice versa, and they are just not cutting it in my opinion since they are more mudslinging than real information on how they hope to make our state better. Personally I am currently disgusted with both of them due to their methods on how they are running their campaigns.
And Geez we sure do need some help in our state, since our unemployment is way up, with one of the highest in the country and home foreclosures are way too many too. Many homes are empty in our own neighborhood due to that.
I am so fed up with each of the two candidates ridiculous demeaning of one another, and proving that the other is more dishonest than them. Well politicians, you know something it finally worked! I don’t trust either one of you now!
And I won’t be voting for either of you unless something miraculous happens between now and Election Day.
And so far it appears the wonderful Facebook peeps also seem to be divided with whom they will be voting for or not unlike me wanting to write that non helpful but honest comment of ‘None of the above!’
You hear about things like this happening in countries where their governments are compromised by drug cartels, or communist parties with dictatorships or in third world places where people who can’t read or aren’t the right sex or color aren’t allowed to have input, but this is the United States of America and I want to use my right to vote, but how did it get to this point with no decent choices?
I am miffed and that is an understatement to the enth degree!
Any worldwide help would be most welcomed.
You know I hate to think that without a civilized alternative what is one good person who wants the best for their adopted home state to do?
Politics have always been a rich person’s game without many surprises.
If it wasn’t for advertising costing so much perhaps we would have more people running in this country or at least now in this state.
Realistically, with true middle class people in the political ring that is when I sincerely think that we would have the leaders that we honestly want and need that would be able to relate to us.
Please powers that be, and now I am asking the earth bound ones not the almighty ones folks, please help change this somehow for the better with some type of sign of good will, perhaps?

Oh well, my pleas for finding out the pulse of my FB Florida friends I will allow to remain up on my profile page for the month I think and I sure would like to see it’s final outcome.

On that note of decision making in some form I will bid you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time be here or be square, OK?

Frame of reference...

Where is that imperative?
I suppose in a legal supposition, but isn’t that also redundant?
Well, even that comment is! LOL!

Today, I stirred up some trouble I feel but that’s me.
I cancelled that free water test from that company that tested my bottled water yesterday at the Home Show if you all recall?
But instead of saying what I said I would say about not being in any position to purchase one of their filtration systems and thanks but no thanks I took it upon myself to express my opinion about their instant water test at the show.
And I defended the company that bottled my water who they said was the worse spring water company of them all!
I also said that I was going to call the company that they maligned and let them know what was going on. And they said that the news had carried the story about how bad the company’s water was and so once off the phone with them I Googled the water company to find out. And we all know that current news stories are usually easily picked up that way, and I got nothing negative at all!
Just about the recent information about the company itself and its big merger years ago.
And so folks I did just that and called that big company and they thanked me for telling them and offered to send me all sorts of information on where they’re water comes from and how it is tested blah, blah, blah… and thanked me for being such a loyal customer.
Hopefully, the can of worms I just opened will not cause either company to have any negative sales, but a better understanding of being sure about what you claim to be true.It reminded me of the mudslinging of the politicians.
And as far as my intentions were… it just bothered me that a product that I used was being accused of something that didn’t make any sense to me.

If I had my life to start over again I would have probably been a consumer advocate, since I have been known to write a mean letter, not mean in the sense of not nice, but informative to let companies know my feelings good or bad about their product and I usually get a very good response in return and often free or discounted products or even a refund if necessary. Even so that is not necessarily my intentions. And today with emails it is instantaneous at times.
Why one time I notified Hanes about my husband’s briefs elastic not holding up and they sent us a dozen new pairs! I didn’t ask but I will never forget that and of course we have been loyal customers since and the newer style holds up quite well!
I have been known to tell companies when I enjoyed their products too and again I received a coupon or free gift!
It’s called feedback.
Honest national or international companies like that, and get it much less than you might think.
May I suggest to my readership to compliment a company that they deal with be it on a one time deal or on a regular basis and just see what happens?
You may be happily surprised.
It also makes you feel good to let others know how this company is and how they respond to your positive letter.
Online it could be accessed in a listing under customer service and otherwise with snail mail under the white or yellow pages found online too, or by calling 1-800-555-1212 in the US and asking for their corporate office number and from there getting their address.


In this economy it is priceless to know how you are doing.
I know many of us, me included express when we are not happy but it is just as important to temper that with telling them when they are doing it right, right?

I also found out something interesting about that 211 phone number, in our Charlotte County Florida it is run by the Sheriff’s Office not United Way like in so many other areas of the country and even in our surrounding counties, how odd?
I needed some information but I ended up getting that revelation instead.
And I had been calling back with something that I thought they could use about a new gym for seniors and people with medical issues, but they told me that they did not keep info on for profit things only on not for profit.
Oh well…

With that glimmer of wondering why…I will wish you all a very happy good night and to suggest for all of you to count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time be here or be square, OK?

Go do...

And so we did … Yes, we left the family compound today!
You don’t believe me?
Oh yes we did… and we went over the bridge to River City AKA Punta Gorda.
The convention center there on the water’s edge was having their bi-annual Home and Garden Show once again!
Since we have been living here in Charlotte County Florida I don’t think that we have missed one of their offerings that were for free.
New innovations are what it is supposed to be all about.
But I guess that I am not that observant or the changes were quite subtle, since I didn’t notice anything new.
It’s true though that I am not that smart.
In actuality we don’t need a thing, and so unless you do and are looking specifically for that obscure piece of this or that it’s just nice to leave the house and talk with new people who I do enjoy to no end…F-R-E-E-D-O-M!
I did and do most often feel like a prisoner in my home as I have mentioned before, mostly because the air, let’s make that heat is frightful outdoors and not at all good for anyone with my condition, i.e. MS, Multiple Sclerosis!
The reason I felt the need to only mention the why of the hot air reasoning was not good for me is because I don’t recall if I had lately in this nightly babble, and since my audience appears to change frequently I felt the need to bring them up to speed, got that?
It has been proven that extreme heat that is unnatural high temperatures are hazardous to all our health but people with MS, Multiple Sclerosis it can cause more lesions on the brain and spinal cord therefore exacerbating negative symptoms of what I have now going on, Optic Neuritis and the like, OK?
Here in Florida it is always a concern since we are warmer more often than colder, but too cold does nothing good for MS either! Although to be fair a bit of cooler does feel better for MS but not too cold which causes me to have more spasticity and some to have complaint’s of Raynaud’s Phenomenon or Syndrome when your skin turns to a purplish color from the cold and becomes very numb.
So the idea is to find a happy medium.
To me mid-seventies would be just perfect with low humidity.

Back to the Home Show, while there someone selling in home water treatment systems asked to test my water in my natural springs water bottle, and came back with test strip in her hand stating that human feces was abnormally high in my sealed before handing it to her bottle, YUCK, BIG TIME!!!!!
And the hard to believe part is that our city water makes me ill but this bottle stuff never has? Not to be untrusting but when she took my bottle of water I did not watch her the whole time and who knows if she had recently been to the washroom and forgot to wash her own hands when she used the test strip, I’m only saying that it could be possible, huh?
With my disgusting thoughts still floating through my brain she took advantage of that and had me quickly make an appointment for them to come out to our home to test our city water for us on this coming Tuesday…but as I started to think more clearly, not to say she wasn’t on the up and up, but Hubby and I discussed it and tomorrow I will call her and explain that we are in no position to purchase her system so even though the test is free, we will say thanks but no thanks. Besides the county tests our water regularly these days whenever we call them that is. I can’t drink the house water and this bottle water was just fine and after we left I did drink, I hear you all saying yuck!
But it never caused any problems before…and so far I don’t feel sick in that way.
And my last blood tests would have shown something like that and it didn’t and I have been drinking this stuff for years! I would think with those high levels of bad stuff I would have cholera or something similar by now! And I don’t, and I am sure I would know if I did that’s serious stuff!

Sadly, my trust of some people has become compromised in this economic situation of late due to most people’s desperation to make a buck, but who can blame them, really?
But isn’t that the reason that we are in such horrendous times?

Well, leaving you again with another provocative thought to ponder I will wish you all a very happy good night and suggest that you count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And folks … next time be here or be square, OK?

Accumulation of bits and pieces...

That’s the way the day went consisting mostly of small spurts of energy and then exhaustion would take over and when I got comfy in a chair my eyes would begin to close… and then I would try to go lie down in bed and Skipper, our adorable Bichon Frise would want up and he would then try his darndest for me to help him, and in a way he does push to help me while I try to pull…we were successful several times since he feels he must know where his Daddy (Hubby) and his Mommy (Me) are all day long and so it is a constant up-down process not unlike a toddler human child!

This morning I actually did a load of laundry and later, much later on, I folded it and put it away. Oatmeal was my ordinary breakfast for today, nothing exciting there.
I have been up for the last two days by four thirty in the morning although the other night I never really did get any sleep.
Ladies you know what I mean when I say always try to fall asleep before a snoring husband, right?
Because if you don’t you will be in for it BIG TIME!
Although, Hubby insists that I do that too, that masculine un-nicety of snoring, who me? But I never heard myself…LOL!
One never knows does one?

Any-who, I do remember though my parents serenading me as a teenager with those ghastly sounds emanating from their bedroom, although somehow I did get used to them and that became a part of the white noise of security that all adolescences need, let Mommy and Daddy rest in peace… for eternity, or do people snore in heaven too?

Being a prisoner in my own home since the weather in the mornings is cooler but still being densely humid and that confuses me. How I long for the low humidity and slightly cooler temperatures, 75 degrees and below fifty percent humidity wise! Then I will be able to venture out I suspect and the prospect of just sitting outside I so long for …those little things we all take for granted.
Whenever we go anywhere it’s in an air-conditioned car to an air-conditioned building, but the temperatures have been rather ungodly in the high nineties but oddly enough with low humidity like Arizona more than Florida! Not normal for us…
We are known worldwide for our humidity; after all we are a peninsula!

Next month, I have faith in the slight weather change that will be more like spring elsewhere in the US, even by the end of this month, October, how I look forward to that cool down!
And that’s around the time of our famous snowbirds are due to come back.
Here the snowbirds are people from other parts of this country’s area where it snows and even in other countries like Canada and Europe too, and all vying to grasp a piece of our glorious sunshine and avoid their harsh cold and snowfalls… thus the name, 'Snowbirds’, evading the snow by flying down here.
But many do drive their own vehicles here, including RV’s, recreational vehicles.
The theory is that we have an extremely mild climate in the winter here; not usually freezing. Although, last winter was somewhat of an anomaly and we did get one heck of winter of colder temperatures so much so we even considered becoming ‘Snowbirds’ ourselves, but to where would we go? LOL

Now as this prisoner that I never thought I would become I do long for the joys of sitting on the lanai just sipping my morning coffee and watching the birds eat from our feeder and bathe and drink from our bird bath and fountain. I do enjoy seeing them from the many windows surrounding the many rooms of our home but to help the air-conditioner not have to work so hard the blinds are usually closed in aiding the house to stay cooler. It really does help.
So doom and gloom is what we seem to have to stay cooler without lowering the air too much lower than the 77 it seems to be on for my comfort and has been running way too much. But it’s due to these unheard of temperatures for way too long, and we know something’s gotta give and it will and soon…

One thing we can always be sure of in life things always eventually change; especially when speaking of the weather!

On that realistic approach to a personal dilemma I will wish you all a very happy good night and suggest to all of you to count those blessings and share all those overages and we will too!

And next time be here or be square, OK?

Have you ever...

Wondered what it would be like to be someone famous?
When most go through that they are usually in their teen years you very rarely hear of an adult going through that, and then again…what if…
Success is like anything else in life it can be finding a cure for some disease, raising wonderful independent capable children or making obscene amounts of money doing something you love.
Some may think with all my writings that I am anti-wealth and therefore success, but no, that’s not it at all.
Why just today I was watching Oprah again and she was interviewing JK Rawlings for those of you living under a rock she is the author of Harry Potter’s, those seven books and bestowed with the honor of being the first billion dollar author!
It was refreshing to watch two women from such different realms in the world and both billionaires talking so down to earth and finding commonalties.
It was actually wild to hear them tell it that they truly found things they could really compare notes on, mostly how they accepted their new identities and new found celebrity when it first occurred.

Both women are altruistic but did not discuss that aspect of their amazing unheard of wealth for women of any century and how they can give away anything to which they so desire and they have.
Both have filled the voids in their lives in different ways.
JK Rawling’s mother died from Multiple Sclerosis when JK was just twenty-five and the thread through her Harry books of him dealing with death which was related to that of her mother’s and was also responsible for her deep depression that she intertwined throughout her storylines has much to do with her own experience of how she was handling it for herself.
Shortly after her mother passed away she moved away with her husband who she ended up getting divorced from later and then went into a severe clinical depression from those two traumatic life experiences. Her writings, like it is for so many of us who write were her therapy in handling all of it with her young daughter by her side that is when she wrote her first Harry Potter book. She was unsuccessful in getting it published by being turned down twelve different times, but in her case thirteen was the charm!
Persistence and resilience are two factors in most peoples successes, have you ever noticed that?

Thinking about not ever worrying about most all expenses is the least stressful thing anyone could ask for in life.
Not necessarily having crazy over the top monies that the banks might invest inappropriately and cause losses that no one wants or needs.
But just the right amount to call ‘enough’, in my case perhaps to be self insured and with that knowing that no matter what comes my way medically it will be taken care of.
Ahhhh… what is the price of peace of mind?
I think many of you can relate to that concept just being just right, not being a burden to a spouse or family and that is priceless.
I know I think of that often.
I want for nothing but that.
My home is just the right place for us and perfect in every way for us; even Hubby admits that to me regularly, we are blessed in that respect but the fact that I have fallen between the cracks for insurances makes me especially nervous, and that is the only financial thing that does.
Family wise we have wonderful healthy capable independent sons and no one could ask for anything more… sadly I do miss them, but at 34 and 38 and due to distance of where they are it is not something a parent has any control over. I do believe they both know how much we love and care about them and them about us.
But isn’t that what we want for our children the ability to fly away to their own lives but to always know that you are there for them if need be.
Well, if not yours; it is ours.

And so when I so often lament my desire to be considered professional at this daily delight of mine that means to turn a profit… it is mainly because of those above concerns nothing more.
This is the only thing left that I love and am able to do with affection and joy, and if it could pay off… well that would be my little slice of heaven too!

On that suggestion of coming clean with my true desire for some wealth I will ask you to all have a very happy good night and to count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time be here or be square, OK?