Edit

To speak without encumbrances is divine, but not always grammatically correct in my case.
My longtime dissertations have not had the advantage of an editor, as anyone who knows their stuff can easily tell.
Sadly, I am not that smart to edit my own works that well since I do not have a degree in English literature or any of the other dynamics that have to do with writing; none at all.
As far as formal writing education goes I had a few semesters of journalism in college and one creative writing workshop!
But all you true wordsmiths know that by now, no fooling you!
In reality I have never ever said that I knew what I was doing would be accurate, but not doing it properly grammatically be assured that is done without doing it on purpose. Or if I ever did meet with the real people who do this work daily as journalists, in print or visual media capabilities or knowledgeable abilities that for me to claim as my own would be unjust and a complete unadulterated lie and so I have never ever done that either. Although, the local newspaper did allow me three by-lines and whenever I write any editorial comment it has been printed, but they are extremely liberal with that sort of thing allowing everybody I think, and since I have been writing this I have hardly written to them. So it may have changed. I also have five murder mysteries that were never edited properly and were almost published back in the late nineties all five as a series, by a publisher in Michigan, Gardenia Publishing, I think, but unfortunately I asked the wrong people about the company and blatantly told her what they said, oops! Later they were proven wrong and I was black listed I believe, if there is such a thing. (Oh, the devil in me…)
I truly believe I have never ever misled any of you and this is by no means an apology.

And so even though I feel the need to make that clear to all of you, my reading public; I somehow feel guilty that I am not providing the quality of workmanship that you all deserve. The only thing I do have going for me is my perseverance and prolixity, ha!
I do know myself and have my own number, so to speak, when it comes to this, which I do know at times goes on to nowhere significant. Remember me constantly referring to the Seinfeld Show, huh my logic?
Blabbering is a habit that I had acquired as a small child.
But isn’t that from where great story tellers come from?
Talking in some cultures is considered an art form, correct?
And for that logic here I am for any of you who so desire to try to figure any of this out nightly...

Any-who…
Today we did get out once again!
Boy are we exciting or what?
And we also treated our little darling Skipper to a trip back over to River City where there was an antique and classic car show riverfront.
Again our weather here in southwest Florida gave us bragging rights with Robin’s egg blue skies and temperatures in the mid seventies with very low humidity!
Haven’t I told you before that we live in paradise?
So come on down!

This time it was across the Tamiami Trail at our waterfront park called Laishley, which was named for the prominent family who donated the land and own the many marine shops in our area.(Correction:just one observation/correction to offer -- Laishley Park was named for a former mayor of Punta Gorda (Phil Laishley); the family never owned the land, thus didn't donate it. The entire waterfront was designated for public use back in the 1880s when Isaac Trabue had the settlement platted (as the town of Trabue); that piece has always been public land. (And, btw, the Laishley family didn't start out in the marine supply business -- they had a farm and feed store on Taylor Road. When the agricultural industry went downhill, they closed that business and began catering to recreational boaters and sport fishermen).All above information thanks to Lynn Harrell a native Punta Gordian and friend. At this area there is a marina and Crabhouse restaurant, ice cream parlor, and offices and a fairly new shop called Creator’s Touch (which is privately owned by Larry and Audrey Freshman) their saying is that “Talent is a gift”, gee I wish for that nightly …moving on…it appears after speaking with the owner that most all of their wares are creations of our incredible pool of local talent of artisans.
Their physical address is 150 Laishley Court (no surprise there, ha!) Laishley Marina (Ha), Unit #16, Punta Gorda Florida 33950, Phone number 941-575-0022. But let me just say for ease of finding them they are to the left of the entrance of the Crabhouse!
You will not be disappointed for they carry everything from paintings to sculptures to jewelry and for us physically challenged peeps they are ADA accessible, which is great and so I breezed on in, in my electric blue motorized easy rider who I will soon come up with a nickname for, any ideas? Yep my mobility scooter, to get a gander while Hubby took Skip to the car! Unfortunately, he would be a little like a bull in a china shop so I suggested they wait elsewhere, but they did have two comfy looking Adirondacks chairs outside for just that sort of thing, but Hubby chose the car to wait and so I tried not to take too long.
My reasoning for naming my assisted living necessities is then they don’t seem too intimidating, what do you all think, it is just a theory and if you have any ideas for naming it let me know, OK?
I do know that when we were teens, back in the 1960’s we thought naming your car was a cool thing to do, huh, who remembers that?
Oddly and suppose a wee bit bittersweet many of those so-called antique autos were younger than us! Thus the elderly sensation taking me over but nostalgia too, ha I caught myself!
Whoa that was scary for a second…

Before I descend too far where I cannot come back from let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and ask you kindly to share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

How?

If any of you recall how I mentioned that I was looking for my joy; well I think I am trying to find it and looking in the right direction.
Mingling with living breathing people and going out into the world!
Simple enough, I hear you all saying, why most of you do that daily for this I am pretty darn well sure.
Since I am sure that most of you are gainfully employed… it is inevitable that you are out and about, correct?
How I do miss so much the ability to just go here or there whenever my heart desires to go…
But alas I no longer drive; it is for the safety of the world, at large; that is!

Any-who, fear of a ‘Debby the Downer babe’ falling off my wagon, tonight’s blog’s journey is making me check my words more carefully tonight…is that a good thing or not?
Well, let’s move on to what Hubby and I actually did do…after accomplishing all of our normal morning chores we left the homestead before eleven a.m. and moseyed on down to the riverfront and River City and into our event’s and conference center for their bi-yearly Home and Garden Show and from there to the street fair and farmer’s market, which started across the street from the center but went on for several blocks! The weather was just perfect then; not too hot or too cold just right to really get out for the best of our day and have plenty of fun!

Quite a full morning and early afternoon too since we didn’t get to eat any lunch until nearly two p.m.! It was difficult with all the crowds at the street fair to find a place that we would enjoy eating at since the lines were extraordinarily long! And so we chose to get back into our car with my scooter and go over to Fishville to eat where we knew we would take pleasure in our meal. I suppose the multitudes spilled over to that arena as well since Fishville too was packed, and so we had to park around the corner where we seem to find our perfect spot when all else fails and is filled, shush, don’t tell anyone, it’s our little secret.

We ate at our favorite seafood restaurant and I had a crab salad and an iced tea un-sweet with lemon and Hubby had a seafood casserole with onion rings and coffee.
It had cooled off by the time we arrived and so without our noble canine pal Skipper with us, (you see, the event center does not allow dogs) we ate inside instead of on the decking facing the harbor. But we were seated in front of the window inside, facing the water! Just right, warmth and a wonderful view; what more could anyone ask for?
In reality it had gotten warmer according to the digital computerized thermometer in our vehicle, but apparently the sun had gone in making it feel colder.
And Hubby went back to the car to grab our jackets to mull around the shops at Fishville and to see if anything was new or different; once convinced that we saw it all, we left.
Hubby stopped at the grocery for only two items, milk and a refill for our Dawn dish detergent and so I waited in the car.
We arrived home just after four p.m. satisfied with our day’s journey and exhausted from all that fresh air.
Our canine son was not wasting anytime with his usual enthusiastic greeting!
Don’t dogs make you feel so terrific with their joy of whenever you come in, even when you might have only gone out the door and came right back in?
Ha, that’s what we all need is that kind of unconditional love…

On that more than truism I would like to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count all those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

Joy

How does one go about finding their joy again?
Harping on my ills has chased the world from me for that I am sure and I am also so afraid of that realization!
Why does my body remind me daily of what I would much rather forget, and why do I forget what I much rather or would prefer to remember!
CRAZY!
I love to be with people and yet I appear to have become a ‘Debby Downer’ when I am.
Partially, I believe, it’s because I do not go out enough to have happy joyous things to talk about. I used to read voraciously but not anymore, which is another topic for discussions.
I used to be way more fun than this, why you can ask my sons?

We used to make sure they had fun too with dinners and movies out weekly when we both were working (and them too); it was a renewal of our relationships with one another.
And we went camping and to museums, on trips to here or there, fishing, swimming and took them out on our boats water skiing and watched as they would surf on the ocean across the street from where we had lived!
They both played instruments, the piano/keyboard and guitar; our younger son even had a rock band called Sound Seduction, and he was in school plays.
I miss that type of joy.
They now live far away, in two different directions from us and each other and have private lives and we hardly get to see them anymore.

Hubby and I are too careful with our money and health, maybe too much so.
And I believe that we must still have some fun and I am on a mission to find it wherever it is or could have gone.
Suggestions from you all would be lovely.
You all do know what our health issues are and I am sure the area here has been well defined by me and others.

The news just had the fact that a proposal for a water park to come to our county is under consideration not too far from our home only about five or six miles!
Not that I would be going to it but it could mean many more jobs for our residents and something for the kids to do! Not to mention the taxes that would come from that and better roads and infrastructure, more hotels and restaurants, this translates into more of more jobs!
And that alone could lower the crime rate or raise it…no, if people have gainful employment they are usually happier thus do not commit crimes and instead will spend more money, which adds to the tax base and creates a much better economy!

Wow, I am pumped and now very excited with the possibility of the concept and I will probably not have too much to do with any of that… but the fallout could improve the value of our homes or lower it, or raise or lower our taxes. I’m just saying that it could go either way. Many areas in this country have amusements that do help with the local economy and with us already being a vacationland we will be just creating more for people from all over the world to come down to, yea I’m happy!

You see now that could be something that people will want to talk about I bet?
Not so controversial, huh?
I doubt that many will find fault with this idea, but who knows… there could be ‘Debby Downers’ for water parks too; I sure hope not, they would have to sink mighty low for that, really!

On that note of hopeful optimism I would like to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and ask you kindly to share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

Hate

Did you ever notice what a nasty word, ‘hate’ is?
But unfortunately some beat around the bush and use double entendres but we are smarter than that and do understand the undercurrent they try hard to cover-up.
I have been inundated by meaning well people who may love me and my faith which is oh too sweet not to be humbled by, but they ruin it for me when they compare one religion to another or its people with one having to be all good and the other being all bad.
You know what I mean … oh you don’t?

Hypothetical again let's just say that I am of the Blue faith and another person is of the Green one and many, actually most in the world, other are of the Purple faith and for some reason these people have all been around for ages since before the Purples became the majority. Let’s say for arguments’ sake that the Blue ones were the scholars and Green ones were the warriors who also professed to be peace loving, but the Purple ones were the most religious and saintly; again just for argument’s sake.

And someone sent you an email that said that the scholars were great and had given the world much in progress and knowledge and all good things due to their outstanding accomplishments but had been taken advantage of and were hated for their abilities and jealous ruthless monster-like people destroyed many during an enormous world event of a reign of terror; which is an absolute truism that we all know about. But then for a comparison the Green people who were of another faith of duplicity in their realm of peace lovers and warriors who hate and those few did terrorize and as a union of people gave very little worthwhile to the world, and the Purple ones who were not discussed except for their feelings about the Green ones, and had also been slightly diminished by the reign of terror also felt that the Green ones were filled with evil. What would you do?

I constantly, nightly try hard to not accuse one group of people for the horrors in the world and to me passing on anything that resembles me hating in anyway would not be true to my self respect and diligence to try and make this a better place for all of us!

Consequently, I think it said, since it was a chain-letter that something bad would come to me or if I didn’t spread the word no one would know that I agreed with what it said?
Who knows really since it stopped with me in my tracks, and I didn’t have the guts to tell the sender; it was a few different ones. Since even though my faith was of the one they revered my European heritage was of the monster one as well as my hubby’s, but neither of us care for a country instead of a political regime being held responsible for what actually did happen. I know that is as clear as mud, huh? You see many of the country were also of the faith that was massacred, and not all country men and women believed politically as the evil doers, got that? RE: Sound of Music, sort of…

It does seem that every time I do forward these vehement notes of spreading the word (Which I never do when I try to read them carefully; I may have had a few ooops over the years; and no one lets me get away with that!) or if so subtle that is not too obvious but subliminal so much so that I was also taken in, boy do I hear about it!
It seems these Green ones are the ‘hate’ topic of the era.
And I ‘hate’ to say this folks but just because one egg or even a few are rotten it does not mean they all are! Numerically by stats it is impossible; ask any statistician?

But all groups have been over the times in history the brunt of someone’s stone throwing or metaphorically speaking and many for ridiculous ideas brought upon by one or two others who just didn’t like how they looked, dressed, talked or for any other reason your mind could imagine.

Did you ever know that when ‘hate’ gets watered by public opinion it grows into a substantial monster of its own? Same can be done with love, I hope...

I keep thinking back from my teen years those years of my bratty childhood which unfortunately peaked by the age of fifteen and that is when I was the most passionate with expressing my feelings about hating this or that!
My wonderful decent funny gracious father ‘hated’ that word hate more than any curse word in his book. He said that it made him cringe when I used it and as a teen I hated inanimate objects or even some person at school (and not because of any of the above reasoning’s; just because) or things that I was told to do, some days almost anything!
Difficult teen years amplified.

Any-who, my dad’s words stuck in my brain that hating anyone or anything was horrid and that he didn’t want me to think like that about anyone or anything, and so dad; how am I doing?
Being judgmental and critical of others I am still working on and anytime I feel the urge to be that way I again realize like with that nasty word ‘hate’, how would I like anyone to hate, judge or negatively criticize me?
But we are all works in progress, aren’t we?
And so I beg of us all to stop with all our hate, judging (except in contests of non-violence) and try to see the good in people, which is what my dad used to say.

On that note of telling you all what I know you already know I want to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night to all and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And please next time please be here or be square, OK?

PS our noble canine, Skipper is well once again, hooray!

Only

For once it is absolutely wonderful to be called the, ‘ONLY!’
What’s that all about you ask?
We are the ONLY state in these United States of America that has the claim to fame of NOT having ANY SNOW!
I don’t know about you but I bet I will think that, that gives us amazing bragging rights to all of us Floridians!
Sure it will be cold tonight and even freezing in some places but we still don’t have that cold fluffy white stuff that loses its pretty fairly quickly when it turns brown or yellow by many unmentionable means! Pretty is our sunsets and our breezy palms swaying, flowers of every variety, colors, shapes and sizes, not unlike people that’s why I love them, all at different times of the year and velvety green lawns to run your toes through! They all have longer staying power that we want and don’t ever try to get rid of; if anything we go for more abundances of all the above!
Sorry but I see no reason to be quiet with all this beauty that surrounds us daily in our true paradise.
And most all of you are just a short plane, car, train or boat-ride from all this!
Oh that’s right; sadly you are snowed in…
Well, maybe when they defrost the different modes of transportation you can come on down; we will be here, ya hear?

Moving on…
Anniversaries can be joyous or sad and today is a sad one of the earthquake that killed a quarter of million people in Haiti. Unfortunately, when it hit I was not glued to my TV since on that same day and time I was in surgery getting my left eye cataract lens put in.
Horrifically I also found out much later that more than an acquaintance, a woman I knew from the Arthritis Foundation dropped dead that same day!
So much can happen when we are so unawares.
But how we handle the aftermaths of these significant events is relevant, we donated to the Red Cross, not a great amount, but what we thought we could afford. I called to get the particulars of that woman’s family information, which sadly was not available I had seen the blurb in a newsletter so that is who I called, and no one had that information because I did ask and the least I wanted to do was to send a sympathy card, but couldn’t. I even tried the newspapers obits, and got nothing again, which was unusual for that sort of thing, but we do know not everyone sends them in.
An update, a time to think of how this last year went, Haiti has not come back as quickly as some people feel it should have, but it was extremely devastated and had a poor infrastructure before the worst hit, and so it will take time. People are still receiving artificial limb replacements to this day, two thousand lost their own limbs due to ruble falling on them, and still a million are displaced without solid homes just tents. Fortunately the hurricanes that we did get this year missed them, but Cholera did not! Another few thousand more are now dead from that avoidable sanitation horror. It’s caused by human waste going into drinking or bathing water I think. Living in tents and close quarters without plumbing is why I am sure this has happen, water irrigations system engineers and plumbers and construction people should go down there to help!
Still no information on that woman who passed away, I basically gave up with trying with the newspapers.
Far as my cataract surgery of my left eye goes it still is my singular window on the world at large, but has lately been trying trickery on me by going in and out on occasion with its own brand of blurriness! I am a wee bit scared about that…
Had my neurologist appointment Monday and I know I mentioned that the doc said I needed another MRI and for any people like me that fall through the cracks and have MS, the Multiple Sclerosis Association of America: just copy and paste: www.msassociation.org helps with those who qualify to get you one weighted and not weighted cranial MRI! And we did, and it needs your neurologist’s information and signature and prescription and there you go, it can be mailed or faxed and my neuro faxed for free! See as I always say where there is a will there is always a way!

Horribly our dear sweet noble canine Skipper fell ill yesterday with what we have taken to calling it his wormy squirmies, and no he doesn’t have worms but he does squirm with a colicky like pain that he gets every several months, and he’s had blood-work ultrasounds, X-rays you name it and the best we can come up with is some type of irritable bowel, yes like what people get! He had to have two shots one of Dexamethosome and the other Buprenorphine one a steroid and one for pain. Thankfully this doesn’t happen too often but when it does it wrenches at your heart, consequently we played tag team with staying up with him over last night and that is why I have been up since four thirty A.M., haven’t done that in quite some time! Oh he does have anti-spasmodic medication from his last bought of last May, but this time after three twelve hour’s a part doses; it still did not work. Since the shots though he does seem like he is in much less pain actually none at all! Yet even though he was sleepy for a while he is much more alert and still appears pain free; tonight will tell! Last night was his squirmie wormies all night long with heavy panting too, very scary! It reminded me of colic from my eldest son as an infant and my own stomach problems that have been many over the years! And so I feel his pain and OUCH, BIG TIME!

On that TMI I will like again to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

PS Everyone stop picking on Sarah Palin, you see it is backfiring, excuse the expression, if you read all the media coverage online her picture is all over the place and it has brought out every type of human being from the wacko to the sublime! No news is sometimes a good thing, huh? We all could use a break! If we stop she will!

Entitlement

We as a people of a democracy in the free world have the ability to have an opinion that is our very own. And no one would ever disagree with that!
But along with our opinions goes a certain amount of responsibility to not be derogatory to our fellow human beings with hurtful comments or behaviors belittling them for who they are.
It’s just good common sense, don’t you all think?
I know I know this appears to be a continuance of last night’s discussion, but not really…
Go with me here, you see we of the almighty pen feel that gives us power to say things that can change the world for the better, how great would that be?
Yes, but didn’t we all learn as children that the, ‘PEN WAS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD’?
When did we forget?
I propose a settlement or let’s say an agreement to use all the media waves for good and not to be mean or to the detriment of others!
CRAZY, you say, and I say hogwash!
Who doesn’t want peace and goodwill towards all men, didn’t we just go through the holidays?
Was that just lip service?
We as a world argumentatively is becoming smaller each and every day with the ability to speak within seconds all away around this world like I did this afternoon with my buddy in New Zealand who called me once again at 4:35 P.M. on 1-11-11 here in southwest Florida and while in her country it was our tomorrow 1-12-11 at 10:35 A.M. way over there, wild huh?
Am I the only person in this small sphere that we call earth that is still amazed by that?
I suppose it impresses me only because I was never an international business person, although the company I last worked for was international, got that?
My management responsibilities were here in Florida, but in five counties with five stores thus the need for me traveling by car three thousand miles a month in our state. I remember that position with fond memories.
I was still that multi-tasker self that made me a ‘dynamo’ by some standards at least that’s what many called me and I wore it with pride. Never a bossy boss but always had my sale personnel in the top five of an international company!
Ahhh memories… doing something that you are good at are always a plus; sadly they went under or is that belly up, but not due to me; thank heavens and that is the only reason I stopped working for them or I would still be there doing what I loved.
Well, maybe not in this delicate condition.
Any-who, I am determined to not be in my last hoorah!
There is much more going to come out of this woman; mark my words…
My exercise program has been daily no matter how I feel since I am so determined!
Let’s face it we are pretty incredible works of mastery, aren’t we?
And that alone makes us capable of hitting the bottom and rising again to the top!
So to be honest with you and myself I am not by any means done with any of this yet, I will come back as I have before.
Why you could call me the comeback kid!
No stopping any of us when we are on a mission of self improvement or helping others; I think there are little elves or maybe angels that get on board with that! HA!
Whatever the case I hear my dad in my ear saying when you have reached the bottom the only place is up from there, right?
Only you can stop your own recovery from not thinking positive and trying your hardest to do what you know you can accomplish! There are no limits when you have good on your side.
So world let’s all be the best we can be and humane and caring and loving and whatever it takes to make this a world one we all can be proud of, after all it’s the only one we got!

On that note of cheerful suggestions please let me be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?

Venomous

I can remember when that word above only referred to snakes being poisonous.
But now we use it for the way human beings talk about and treat each other, how sad that our times have changed with that meaning being so casual and unfortunately turning up way too often in our news casts nightly, huh?

It makes me want to scream: "PLAY NICE EVERYBODY!"
Gosh and I was a bit of a bratty child.
But thank heavens my parents stuck with me and taught me right from wrong which did sink in!
What is going on in this world when us grown ups act more like rotten kids than kids do, although that is questionable from the nightly news reports?
Come on folks we are supposed to set an example for them, and I mean a good one not a VENOMOUS ONE!
Not so funny peeps this is serious.
Someone kiddingly suggested that we should become licensed before becoming parents and some days I wonder if that was not such a bad idea.
Dear Sarah Palin is being somehow held responsible for being way too gun-ho with her colorful speech patterns and artwork of discussing people she apparently has a dislike for being in the crosshairs of whatever her weapon of choice is of the week.
Well, Sarah some of us gals still prefer those cute panties with the days of the week printed on them, but ohhh excuse me that would be too sexy we know that the word ‘sex’ is verboten in your household or is that ‘sex education’, but ‘reload’ is music to your ears!
Funny how some of us girls of the older variety still have an issue with weapons as the final accessory to any well dressed Ex-governor's evening wear or our own for that matter, but we are a wee bit different; most of us anyway. Although, I am pretty sure there are many women out there in AMERICA, PS my land too, who do feel as you do. Why I have an old friend who also loves to hunt as you do, but she lives all alone in the mountains of NJ, bear country!

I don’t know what influenced that monster of a young male to do what he did, but if during his interrogation he at all mentions that he was hearing the hate mongers spew their hate from every form of media that would listen due of course to free speech, but had the right to congregate too in different in-person venues I would think that any of those involved should rethink their negative passions being excreted all over the land that we all do love…Since we DO HAVE TRIGGER HAIRED TEMPERED PEOPLE OUT THERE,YA HEAR?
Not everyone is stable and able to differentiate from what is just political rhetoric and horrendous mob mentality creating venom!
So be careful with those words that you seem to feel so strongly about folks remember you have no idea who is listening, and yes become a wee bit paranoid it is good to check those hatred mean words before they go forth and pollute our airwaves, and air in general. That thing you learned as a child about, “sticks and stones may break your bones and names may never hurt you”, well it is a bunch of BULL S--T, and you better believe it!
The recent suicides prove that with all those bullies and remember to think clearly before listening too much to anyone who purports that you should not like this person or that thing… THINK FOR YOURSELF! Keep always believing in the good of mankind and womankind too! And read about anything you need to know about and be voracious in informing yourself to get the vastness of the information available to you if you do your own homework and research from many of the sources, don’t be lazy, really care. Weak minds are lazy; inquiring minds never are.
I am so sorry for this rant of talking to intelligent men and women as if they don’t know a thing and I do know that my readers are too smart and know what to do in any situation, since free thinkers love to read these things, right?

Any-who please don’t take offense my reach, was to those who probably never ever read this sort of thing, oh well… I did try.

For you, the good people who do read this blog please know that I want to be the first to wish you all a very a happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK?