Stats

A statistic is a sign, marker, guide, value and gauge for the use of or the amount of or the rendering of some type or person or gender or race or religion or whatever you need to know as long as someone anyone is willing to cooperate and sticks to accuracy with those numbers of information. Why the decimal census is our claim to that fame and if you know anyone who ever did a feasibility study like supposedly our federal, states and local governments do regularly on different theories on what is needed in a community then you know of those statistics too, private business has been known also to do it to see if their particular type of industry will work in a certain area.
All in all people who do attain statistics use them for a significant purposes even in insurance companies who use theoretical ones on death, disasters and the like and of course what they feel your home or car will be worth in the future if they need to be replaced as we all know.

There you go, we all know what they are and why they may be used, and so I may be one of the few people in this world who appears to be baffled by my own determined statistics on how many people view this nightly righteousness that I sometimes spew like last night in particular although many are much more benign in content. Last night’s appeared to hit a nerve with the world! What joy and purpose!

You see, perhaps it was the mention of a major company like ‘Nike’ that peaked their interest or perhaps it was the 'Just Do It' lament or my mention of sneakers being a Karma user. But when I happened to look at my stats, which I really shouldn’t do and they tell you not to do (But I am a firm believer in until I know who ‘they’ are I will do as I please, so there!) And so I did and to my astonishment the stats from the night before and last night’s were quite remarkably contrasted! The amount of people viewing was over 10 times more last night than the night before! Gosh whatever I did I hope I can replicate it!
I do know it is silly for me to be so impressed with just numbers but unless there was some type of glitch and it was a mistake I was so very amazed with it and to me it was simply ‘AWESOME!’
Not that I get paid for this joy of my life’s blood, sweat and tears but I do so love the fact that others have made the effort to actually read this litany of mine, what-have-you, a stream of consciousness form of writing I presumed that it was just for my own enjoyment and cataloguing life’s ups and downs, but knowing whenever I touched one other person is always a plus and I do so care to be aware of that, and so please accept a big thank you to all of you!

Moving on…
To be honest today we did go out again but we took our noble dog Skipper and he was fine most of the time but when I or Hubby were out of sight he went berserk! He suffers from sever separation anxiety we think or so it would seem by his unruly behavior on those occasions.
And that my friends was why this day was more than a bit unnerving for both of us.
We did go back over to Fishville AKA Fisherman’s Village in River City AKA Punta Gorda. Our darling canine was wonderful walking through the crowds but for some reason when it came to other dogs he saw he would bark and did the same with small children. He was never ever vicious only barking, but annoying just the same. I truly believe as Hubby does that it is all caused by his lack of socialization on a regular basis and thus the road trip for that purpose. He would definitely be a handful for anyone and two nice folks once a woman and once a man, tried to help me while on my scooter Hubby had turned his leash over to me while he utilized the facilities once and then to check in the restaurant if we could get seating out on the decking since it was another gorgeous day in paradise and dogs are allowed there!
He was pretty great while we ate too, only spilling his water a couple of times but got comfy and relaxed during our meal. Hubby had fried fish and fries with coffee and I had crab salad with cole slaw over a mixed salad with a Balsamic vinaigrette with my iced tea unsweet and lemon. In the center courtyard there today was a banjo troupe called ‘Four Leaf Strummers’, and they were very enjoyable and apparently played there for free since they requested donations. They even encouraged sing-a-longs but I thought they should have had some hand outs with the words of their selections since not all of them were familiar tunes and many could only hum like me and oh how I do love to sing!
But to their good there also were many songs that we all did know, mostly the patriotic ones, since today is President’s Day!
When I was young we had Lincoln’s Birthday on the 12th of February and Washington’s on the 22nd, which today I am pretty sure most children don’t know that that is their actual birthdays. I always remembered those two dates easily since our younger son was born a day before the one and my Mom was born on the other’s birthday!
Associations like that I learned from my Dad who had a magnificent memory until the day he died, why we even were playing sports trivia with him in the hospital when he had his stroke that sadly he passed away from five weeks later. But he knew all the answers, Dad was amazing. Tomorrow my Mom would have been one hundred years old and Dad would have been 104 on the 27th of last month, but alas sadly they have both been gone for years, but I still miss them every day, especially on the rough ones as you all can probably relate to.
They were wonderful peeps and I think unfortunately since they have been gone I realize that more today as a truism.

Any-who, on that somber note I will like to still 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, ya hear!

Nike

Is more than a manufacturer’s label these days it has drifted into our culture to become an attitude directive with a positive meaning of, “Just Do It!”, or one might say simply, “Nike!”, with the same meaning of intent.
Gosh how many advertising firms can boast that?
I don’t know who originally initiated it but they should be real proud on how that concept took off and of course its longevity.
Other products also have slogans but not as demonstrative but cunning as this one I do believe.
Whoever thought of this one was more than brilliant; if there is such a thing, huh?
Sure wish it was me and that is not to say that I haven’t had clever ideas in my previous life; just ones in not that worldwide acclaim type.
On a much smaller level I wrote a radio jingle for our business in NJ as well as copy too, and I even suggested a tiny idea to one of the non-profits I was a volunteer with using Michael Jackson’s song ‘Beat It’, as the concept for beating their/our disease and showing the many faces, like he did with morphing the many people who also had the disease young or old and all the races that were touched by it personally.
Not worldwide but something.
I did notice the concept in their monthly magazine one time and all I could do was smile that it worked!

You know it is nice to get credit for some things in life.
But it’s not the only reason to do them, correct?
Like being a good neighbor or helping as a volunteer for something you truly believe in?
I have told many people over and over again how when I am at my most self involved point I found helping others helps to get out of your own miserable self and that help you give makes you in turn feel just wonderful once again! I suppose in reality it is the ultimate selfishness!
That’s why Hubby and I did enjoy helping others all those years as volunteers, unfortunately though the last few have not been good though with our lack of abilities.
But I shall not harp once again on those because any of you who read this regularly know all about it anyway!
And so I will move on…
Back to the first thought about ‘Nike-ing it’ is to say that we should all not make excuses and when there is a time or place we need to take care of business then we should go right ahead and do it!
I so miss all those times but I did do for nearly forty years on and off, and so I feel pretty darn good about all those years…of my Nike times.
All in all that is what I want the world to know with all this current turmoil in it, people have found out how the other half lives and want in…
And so they are just doing it!
Not that I would suggest or agree with their methods but they need to do what they need to do and who am I to tell anyone who lived in those extreme conditions for so long?
Sadly, negotiations with rationale do not work in other parts of the world like we have also found out here too at times.
My hope for our world is to find something that settles the disagreements and calms the masses to work together, not too much to ask, huh?
Any-who, let’s all pray that somehow someway it will all work out since people this is the only world we got! So NIKE IT!

On that plea to wish peace on earth goodwill toward men and women; let me be the first to say happy good night to all and kindly ask you to also count those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

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

Festival!

Organizations from any ills you can think of, to houses of worship have them to raise money for that particular cause and by rights of sheer decency and need they should all do well financially and have great turnouts!
On these fair-like occasions they usually consist of artsy type tents and food and beverage venders, as well as some type of music to add merriment of a type of ambiance to the festivities, correct?
And today we went to a Greek Festival locally; it is one that we have gone to for the last few years. The Greek food is great and the jewelry and artwork are also quite good too.
And they do provide the musicians with an enormous shaded tent to perform in that also doubles as a dinning room for the many guests buying the food from the outdoor vendors.
As I said we have been going to this particular one for maybe the last few years and for some reason this year the music seemed exceptionally loud. And since I am heat and sun sensitive we did find a table way in the back in that shaded tent to consume our lunches, but my head pounded heavily with the severely thunderous sound of this year’s music and I am a very big music lover and used to feel at times that louder was better, but this was way too much! And Hubby did agree.
We left after about three hours which is more than enough anyway.

Moving on…
And we went on to the next venue that we had on our docket for the day… Sam’s Warehouse Club and to try the car key that was mailed to us to see if we won a car!
Ha, you all say and you would be right of course but the two times Hubby took the key by himself he came home empty handed and this time he thought that I should try with his heartfelt encouragement. And so he handed the mailer to me and as we approached the tented area a women walked toward us and asked if we were there to buy a car and we said no we were there to try the key to see if we won a car! She asked to see the mailer and then ignored me and spoke to Hubby directly like I was chop-liver! But to be honest the mailer did have his name on it not mine, but he did hand it over to me saying maybe that I would have better luck! I hate when people ignore you just when she saw that I was no longer a viable driver; for that fact or for any other reason really!

Any-who, Hubby and I both thought they were there to sell new vehicles, but found out quickly they were all used. And so we decided to try the key anyway and of course… wait for it… YEP, YOU WERE ALL RIGHT and no we did not win any autos new or used. But the woman at the table seemed to think that we wanted their lottery tickets that were NOT state tickets and that you must fill out the whole back with your personal info before you scratched them off and so Hubby and I decided to not take them and left.
TA DA!

Let’s put it this way it was something to do and the weather here was the bragging rights type low eighties and low humidity.
To keep me cool today I did wear my Copaxone advertising in electric blue colored neck cooler, which is a tube like fabric with beads that absorb cold water and retain it and I also stuck a cool pack in my bra too, ooops, did I say that? LOL!
Don’t we all say whatever works?
I also of course had my bottle of water with a spare in the car.
All in all it was a day to be outside in the glorious weather and who can complain about that?
The reason I thought this was going to be a more humorous blog tonight is because I recently saw a commercial for another important festival coming up soon on Pine Island and the name of it threw me into a silly dither since they chose to name it… now hold on… wait for it… THE BREAST FEST! Clever and sort of ridiculous at the same time, huh?
Is it just me or have we all gone crazy with the way we market fundraising for important diseases like breast cancer? I could be wrong because it did make me laugh perhaps I am the irreverent one I certainly have shown latent tendencies before, huh?

On that more revealing of me than I probably should have done please allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time be here or be square, ya hear!

Feel?

How do you feel?
Sense, experience, suffer, undergo, be aware of, think, believe, consider, deem, and be of the opinion, suspect, touch, finger, stroke, caress, handle, ambiance, impression of that thing we all call ‘feeling’.
Do you do it with your heart, with your hands or with your emotions, may be some of the ways to truly feel…
Some days I wish I weren’t able to feel…
Pain that is and yes that is under the physical kind or even emotional type, but I am sure there is not a living soul who would not agree with that one!
To be able to not feel any hurt bodily or within the realm of the mind; wouldn’t that be great?
Although, many may say that pain in either arena gives you the ability to really appreciate when there is none at all!

Today was a painful day physically for me not the brain wave feeling one, but as you may have figured out that is what I was trying to communicate to all of you.
But I always worry when I do if I will lose your attention.
Yes, though today has been a bad one all day long on and off and I really have no idea why it has been more so than some other ones.
It started before I was to begin my exercise program even before I took my Baclofen which I always try to take before I begin since it is my anti-spasmodic that meaning it would supposedly help prevent painful spasms while I incorporate my plan.
To be honest this headache, backache, neck ache thingy did start to get bad a few days ago. You see I do also have cervical stenosis with spinal spondylosis besides the MS and so when these problems happen who knows which is causing what, huh?
I do know that exercise at least the ones that I do are not harmful to me or my already old physical problems so after the tushy rolls and belly crunches I decided to rest in between before I began the rest of my leg lifts flat on my back and then on each side and then those five pound weight lifts; all to that count of fifty reps, but in spite of the pain I must admit I completed my program and survived!
Normally when anyone starts an exercise program the soreness starts shortly after, but I am going into my second month; in fact Tuesday it will be two whole months!
And so that cause and affect didn’t make any sense to me, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t be the cause?
The worst is that nasty neck spasm that I have gotten only a few times before where, now hold on I do want to warn you this is going to be a pretty graphic explanation, are you ready? Well, when my neck goes into this weird contortion like my esophagus is going to take a left turn out of my neck, scary! And my headaches aren’t normal either, besides being a soreness in the back of my head and numbness at my temples and my eye sockets get painful almost like a sinus headache but not since I do know the difference.
Crazy!
My back goes into spasms too and thighs and the calves do have the MS hugs as well as my rib cage and upper thighs too…
Oh MS hugs definition: feeling like an elastic band or girdle is tightening around wherever it is happening got that? Ooops TMI!

Sorry, but it’s been a bad day.
And to top it all off at different times of the day I nod off and so today I tried to take a nap and that didn’t seem to help at all!
I do know that most of us MS peeps do have these things daily and so unless they trash me as a massive army like today where I think they must have some general discussing how to get Tobi to pay attention to her bodily malfunctions!
How I do try hard to distract myself like I am sure many others do.
Any-who, it is because I cannot take pain meds without them not working or causing more problems than they are worth since I have severe allergic reactions and so I don’t, got that?
Over these many years I found exercise to be the most helpful to alleviate pain but also when all else fails Lamaze breathing and pinpointing locations on the wall to stare at…has been known to help, so I recommend to try it, it couldn’t hurt.

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

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

Mystery...

Secrecy, anonymity, obscurity, ambiguity, inscrutability, vagueness, unknown, anonymous, unidentified, a whodunit, detective novel, thriller and last but not least a crime novel all are forms of mystery; whew am I exhausted, what a mouthful!
How many of you knew that? I bet all of you did!
But I am happy that my own confusion on genres of books that I classified as mysteries fell into those four categories of a whodunit, detective novel, thriller and crime novel.
You know I always thought they did but I thought that some authors prefer one of those labels over the others and it is good to know that it is just a personal preference not my actual mistake to call someone’s work this or that!
I think I mentioned, maybe a hundred times or more about the series of five murder mysteries I did write that were nearly published way back in the late 1990’s by Gardenia Publishing, any-who I screwed that up with a speaking out of turn misinformation, you know some things never change.
I also contacted one of my favorite woman author's publishing house and I suppose I ruined that by saying that the real person and her character she wrote about were as different as Cher and Mother Teresa! But I did say how I loved and read all her books; it was just her bio that threw me thus such a contrast! PS it was Sue Grafton, oops did I say that?
I was always told to write about what you know… although, I must admit that I have never ever murdered anyone though I did enjoy reading that genre and Hubby is a retired deputy and so I had insider info on how it all works, and that is why I thought that was a good start in the knowing factor?
Apparently, my mouthy display of my opinion or honesty does not sit well with most of the publishing world, huh?
Poor me, nah, I sabotage myself all of the time, and then I wonder why I did it?
I engage my mouth before I think all controversies through; that’s why writing is a better communication venue for me, since I can edit as I go…hmmm…
But as we all know I have written many things that I shouldn’t have including those letters to those publishers and that is why there is NO MYSTERY in this gal!
Sadly I exposed myself to scrutiny and ruined my own imposing mystique of how I literally appear to the world by going out into it and now there is one of my Facebook friends that saw the damage that the years and illness has taken on this being of me. Pretty young thing now obese and ugly! The ugly is due to an extreme dog bite over my lips by my younger son’s dog that we took in when he went into the Navy as well as his cat. The dog Andrew was a pup from that same hurricane that we all had gone down to help with in that aftermath it was not the collie-Shepard’s fault really I had been writing and editing on my books and he decided to lie below my computer chair and for some strange reason I had to get up for more coffee or something and I rolled over his tail and when he yelped I bent down and asked him if he was all right and then he growled and ripped my lip nearly off!
At the time I was all alone since Hubby was in Tampa, one hundred miles away at a hurricane conference and so I got into the shower and washed it out, got myself dressed held gauze on it and drove myself to the hospital on a Sunday!
They took one look at me and asked me how it happened and I told them and they immediately said that I would need a plastic surgeon and that they would call him and as far as I know they did right away. But when the wait turned into one hour then another and then finally after five he did show up Dr. Constantine who has recently rose to some political office, the so-called best in the area. He told me two things that he was at a barbecue or perhaps the nurse did; it was quite a while ago, anyway the next thing he said that he wouldn’t touch it since I smoked!
He wanted me to promise if he did fix my lip that I would quit and I was internally fuming at this point as anyone could well imagine after waiting five hours with a literal bloody lip falling off their face! I again was honest and said no that I couldn’t promise that right now and that was the truth! Others may have lied just to get him to do his so-called superior G-d-like mending but no, not me! I was too truthful under devastating to me circumstances, and yet he gave in and said OK.
I suppose I called his bluff. My little lip took forty tiny stitches that many say they cannot see; all but me... since I see them daily! Then to top it off a couple years later I had a hard lump in my left cheek that the dermatologist felt the need to biopsy and he too cut into my face! And installed a couple of more stitches! Am I sounding like a horror movie to you yet?
Full disclosure here, and now many say that gathered skin has also diminished but once again I still see it! Being so fat does seem to take care of lines and gatherings on the face though; I must admit one of the only advantages to being this fat!

Are we all so shallow or is just me with my appearance, although my temperament is also not where it should be either and I do have many personality flaws.
I honestly thought I was not that great looking as a young woman but a decent human being just a bit naive. Although I did model for all the department stores that I worked in there in a managerial capacity; they asked me to model and so I did and it was fun. And consistently moved up my positions in their companies at fairly quick paces, had to be my abilities, but who really knew.
Doesn’t that prove my point we are never satisfied as human beings when that is so sad.
And that is not to say that we should stop trying to be better than what we are at this moment, but perhaps we should re-evaluate and not be that disappointed in who we are when we are, got that?
I am me, and you are you and now the mystery is lessened, huh?
Someday I might even publish a current photo of me; in this body now that would be a gutsy move, nah… what will that prove?

On that wee bit of continuing mystery in me I would love to be the first tonight to wish you a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count those blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

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

PS Andrew the dog did die a few years later of liver cancer that we nursed him with for several weeks, but when our son was originally told what had happened with me and his dog a while after it happened and we were actually all better he thought that I should have put the dog down.
I still contend that it was my fault and we did find out that Andrew had arthritis and it very well may have been what caused him to react as he did, and ironically we think it may have been his arthritis medication that caused his liver cancer which is rare in dogs. He was jaundice and vomited bile it was a dreadful way to go! And he was only eight weeks old when he was saved from Hurricane Andrew that poor dog what a sad life, although he did give us many years of happiness nine in total if I recall correctly. He was our son’s companion through all his college years at USF!

Flavor?

Flavor has many interesting definitions: a hint or suggestion, the aspect of the situation or a feeling or just the sense may be the spice or seasoning or even aroma… nah the essence perhaps of the tang or zest of the thingy, but we all must savor the idea when it may very well, might not be our taste, huh? TA DA!
Words can be amusing and I definitely feel we all should make them our friends, right?
Well that’s just silly, of course they are… aren’t they?
No one can utter a sound without their use, amazing you say!
Nah, you didn’t but I did and now you see and know what I meant.

The reason I chose the word ‘FLAVOR’ tonight to investigate is because I feel it can mean so many things, true?
My first sentence of the evening gave you an inkling of the depth of the word; little did we realize its significance in the world; not so small after all, huh?
Such a tiny inconspicuous regular type guy fixture in most of ours' vocabularies, and never did we figure that it might be one of the most underused expressions of descriptiveness.
But tonight we can rectify its meager utilization and show its profound ability to zestfully broaden the use in any conversation or even any letters or email sentences!
Ask someone for instance, “What flavor are they?”
Or maybe, “Do you smell that wonderful aroma; what flavor is that?”
Let’s try this, “Are you zesty or tangy tonight my dear; your flavor I so want to savor?” Pretty damn sexy huh; OOPS there goes my cringe factor once again…
These lines are to be used with only your family and very close friends since I have no idea what others may think if you try them on them, be careful and this was my disclaimer, thank you very much, all right?
As the expression goes: use it or lose it, got that?

Moving on… today we had company our neighbor from across the canal she spent nearly two hours here and allowed me to speak ridiculously way too much and too long as usual since she can be quite polite and gracious.
After she left we had a quick fast lunch then went off on an errand trip which consisted of the home store this time Lowe’s, since we had a coupon for weed and feed and chose a few other items a packet of marigolds, a dimmer switch for the repair of our broken one for the kitchen and last but not least a hybrid lily, specifically for Florida that comes back yearly and prolifically makes more and a bag of potting soil to start the process in one of our many attractive large pots that we have empty now. This one is a dark red raised designed one but in a lightweight material that I can even lift and NOT break! We have a few like that that we have had for years. Unfortunately the last things in them passed on to that great plant heaven somewhere in the faraway sky…
Next stop was to Jo-Anne’s Crafts and Fabrics and I would also like to add wedding album center, since I was lucky enough to find one with Hubby’s help to replace ours that forty years and hurricane dampness (due to no utilities for two weeks after Charley hit, the hurricane that is, and in the ninety degrees temperatures inside and out in August circa 2004!) had their way with it… this new one is acid free and the book does expand and ten extra pages, sold separately and 40% off of it all and it was all less than $18 bucks, what a great deal!
Last stop was to Publix and we chose some lunches and tonight’s dinner and then home sweet home…

On that flavor-ific near ending to a savory day let me be the first to wish you and yours a very happy good night and to kindly ask you to count hose blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

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

Complicated

Complicated: complex, difficult, intricate, knotty, dense, thorny, convoluted, problematical, and full of twists and turns and that about covers the synonymous words meaning what many have decided to call their relationships. And I suppose now we all should understand why they used that term, huh?
Not really, but aren’t all human associations just that?
Who among us have not felt that at times our soul mate doesn’t understand us?
Come on now folks we are talking honesty here… and you know I won’t tell…
Love makes life complicated.
Arguing makes life complicated.
Shoes make life complicated… no? Oh, I was just seeing if you were listening.
And ha, I see YOU ARE! Nah that would be ridiculous cause I can’t see any of you there…And a great big thank you to you anyway!
I always wondered when at one time people were asked what their relationship status was they would just put down that all encompassing word… say it with me now PEEPS, C-O-M-P-L-I-C-A-T-E-D!
Perhaps it is avoidance of a true commitment?
Or maybe just a simple denial that you are in one?
You know when I think about it those who used that anti-verbose wordage we would usually leave them alone as if we understood exactly what they meant, huh?
Clever of them, hmmm.
Sort of like saying none of your G-- D--- business to us, huh?
Okay, they must have removed that choice from our Facebook pages, since I never do see it anymore or maybe people just don’t answer at all when asked that almightily highly controversial question, what’s your marital status?
You do know that you will go to ‘hello’, without the ‘o’, ha!
Ooops my darn cringe factor is showing once again with those last few sentences.
Enough already you say!

All righty now, I will move on…then…
I have a friend on Facebook who also just so happens to be the well renowned author, James W. Hall. He has many books to his credit and his main character’s name in his novels is Thorn and I have read all of those great books of his and I can’t wait until the next comes out this coming fall he said. And I always wondered why he chose that name of ‘Thorn’ and now that I am reading the meaning of so many of our daily used words, do you think it was a joke on all of us that he chose that name to throw us all off track and he really felt it was just too ‘COMPLICATED’ to find another name since ‘thorny’ is a synonym for that all so allusive word, I do wonder? Or maybe he told us in his text but with my MS brain I could have forgotten, and yes I do play the MS card as often as I can!LOL!
Yep, you got that right; I also stuck out my adult tongue again too!

Oh well, perhaps I should ask him outright all he could say is that it’s none of my GD business, huh? Where did I hear that before…, huh?
But in reality he does seem way too nice to do that; one never does really know though, does one?

On that childishly silly note let me be the first tonight to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you kindly to count your blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

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