Comfort

Comfort can be something soothing, consoling, reassuring, calming, reliving, easing, placating, easy, luxurious, cozy, a form of well being, and secure, relaxing, contentment, solace, cheering, encouraging, gladden, succoring, heartened or bolstering. What another mouthful, huh?
Let’s not forget southern too, as in Southern Comfort, ha!

But in actuality that name probably more than likely came from the warm fuzzy feeling living in the south can give to just about anyone when here, huh?
And no one can deny that’s why most that move to the south from the all too cold north do come down here for many of those reasons above.
Warmth is number one in finding comfort, but not too or then it would be UNCOMFORTABLE!
We all need to feel just right.

I think though that just the meaning of the word comfort can also mean warmth, since being cold could be synonymous with discomfort; no one cares to be cold, but warmth gives you pause… and makes you think of happy good things, like puppies, milk, or even the phrase comfort foods brings smiles to ones heart and soul, correct and you must admit most are of the warm variety?

The human brain and word association is miraculous when you come to think of it, true?
Some things are universal in meaning when others are regional, but so many can encompass an explanation of what something means to them by definition, which to me is still amazing when one takes the time to consider how that could be?
Here I go again with that overused now circle of life thingy, but in truth don’t we all as a race of beings of this planet need comfort, creature comforts are what we call them, food, shelter, and companionship, simplicity at its finest?

Conditioning from the first day of life has proven that is what is needed for life to survive, not only human but in many ways all living things! So in reality that must be where that idiom, ‘creature comforts’ came from or so we can logically deduce.

I know that I am the first to tell you NOT to do that, but this is too easy not to, correct?

Moving on…
I am so surprised with the bouncing around of peeps on and off my friends list and I do know that I may have been responsible for most of it since I am still pruning all those odd question asking Facebook friends. We all do have that right to do what we think is right for us. Oddly enough though my numbers hover over the maximum of where I continue to remain, no more cultivating of newbies for me anymore for the last few months.
Idealistically it would be great to get to know all those that are there, but alas my greed I fear has made that impossible, too many exist.
It fluctuates around sixteen hundred or there about.
That was wrong for me to do since I am not a celebrity or any longer a business woman who might need that many to make contacts with their public, big oops…
But I do write this thingy I call lovingly. ‘my drivel’ and who doesn’t enjoy an audience for a public spectacle they make of themselves; barring being too embarrassing, well I do, do that quite frequently, huh? Ah heck! This is written under a pseudonym and no one knows who Tobi really is, correct? HA! Who am I fooling? Yesterday was ALL FOOLS DAY! See I even answer my own questions, how thrifty of me and comforting to know that I can always rely on me, myself or I to simplify this essayist’s standard malarkey and gibberish of nightly trite in written word!
How utterly marvelous a feeling to know you all will be there for me to entertain and inform you; what more could anyone ask for?
For comfort is where you find it and we should all look for what fits for you personally!

On that note of trying to tie up loose ends, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to 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?

Do you pray?

What do you think, too personal a question, or not?
I was asked that a few days ago.
And at the time I knew that person knows that I don’t go regularly to a house of worship and many today don’t so I am not alone on that.
But do we all have to go to a building designated for that purpose to pray, I ask you?
No, but that is just my opinion and I am entitled to it just like you are to yours, right?
My answer to my friend was more like a stutter though, since she did catch me off guard and I admitted speaking more often to my deceased parents, who I do feel are more than likely in heaven, than for me talking to the almighty.
Can anyone else relate to that?

Heavy conversation, I hear you all saying, and usually a taboo topic in most circles, here we go again… is this another sign of the circle of life thingy?
Surely it most definitely is, or is supposed to be.
When we were young people, in the olden days, we used to be told that when we went out for socializing that certain topics should not be discussed in public, money, sex and religion, maybe I got that second one wrong, you know I am getting forgetful these days…

Any-who, today we live in the times when ‘anything goes’, odd how ‘déjà vu’ is that?
I do seem to recall that comment coming earlier in my life, hmm. Gosh That Broadway show, ‘Anything Goes’ is a Cole Porter one, circa 1934; for me it’s the movie of 1956 that I remember that’s why that expression sounded so familiar, huh? Kids go find those lyrics and have a fun time travel with truly great music! Oh wait here it is! Ask mom and dad or the grands for the tune!


”Times have changed,
And we've often rewound the clock,
Since the Puritans got a shock,
When they landed on Plymouth Rock.
If today,
Any shock they should try to stem,
'Stead of landing on Plymouth Rock,
Plymouth Rock would land on them.

In olden days a glimpse of stocking
Was looked on as something shocking,
But now, God knows,
Anything Goes.

Good authors too who once knew better words,
Now only use four letter words
Writing prose, Anything Goes.

The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos
And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes

When grandmama whose age is eighty
In night clubs is getting matey with gigolo's,
Anything Goes.

When mothers pack and leave poor father
Because they decide they'd rather be tennis pros,
Anything Goes.

If driving fast cars you like,
If low bars you like,
If old hymns you like,
If bare limbs you like,
If Mae West you like
Or me undressed you like,
Why, nobody will oppose!
When every night,
The set that's smart
Is intruding in nudist parties in studios,
Anything Goes.


The world has gone mad today
And good's bad today,
And black's white today,
And day's night today,
When most guys today
That women prize today
Are just silly gigolos
And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes

If saying your prayers you like,
If green pears you like
If old chairs you like,
If back stairs you like,
If love affairs you like
With young bears you like,
Why nobody will oppose!

And though I'm not a great romancer
And though I'm not a great romancer
I know that I'm bound to answer
When you propose,
Anything goes...
Anything goes!”

Thanks to ST Lyrics.

Geez, we all have times in our histories when things have changed for the better and thus when anything goes, in conversation or mores or life in it self, and that my friends proves my point which is we are in the circle of life, historically speaking that is! TA DA!
And that above ditty proves my point.
So let’s all feel good about speaking our minds and do it regularly as you can with joy and pleasure in your heart, since once again, today, ANYTHING GOES!

On that note of G-d only knows what, let me be the first this evening to wish you a very horrible night and to ask you all kindly to never read anything that you don’t enjoy ever again and that includes this blog of mine and never ever care about those blessings that you so proudly count and don’t you dare share those extra ones with anyone else, since they may not want them and we won’t either! Gotcha! April Fool joke!
Do all the opposite of what I just wrote above, have a very happy good night and count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

BUT PLEASE DON’T COME HERE EVER AGAIN! Gotcha, another APRIL FOOL JOKE!
Yes, please next time be here or be square, ya hear? And I do mean that with my whole heart and soul.

Fun filled day!

Not really but I thought that would grab your attention, gotcha!
In actuality it was charged with excitement of the fairly common kind, except for the possible radiation in our gallon of milk…NOT!
By that intriguing comment I bet you can tell that we went grocery shopping and then saw the news! Scary, the cows in Washington and California, they must have glow in the dark grass in their meadows, since apparently their milk is showing slight radiation infusions; not funny I hear you all saying and yes I agree! But I couldn’t resist my bad…
Any-who, we did get our food necessity shopping done thanks to Hubby’s pension check coming in; gosh we, were out of everything and our bill there reflected that!

We intended on leaving before eleven A.M. for that major errand but I had heard a rumbling noise emanating from our roof top early this morning, a sound that has meant in the past that our pools solar panels had lost their sashing and were free flowing up and down all over it.
Sure enough Hubby checked and they were all doing their funky rollover dance and so Hubby had to hopefully find more sashes to secure it with a storm possibly coming this evening, in fact according to the news reports it may be here before I finish this!
And so scarily Hubby had to climb the ladder to our one story roof, not so scary you say… well , Hubby has a really bad back and I worry, ladder climbing is not so easy in that condition as anyone who has one too can well imagine, but he installed the panels nearly six years ago before his accident. Fortunately, he has been to physical therapy and so he does know proper body mechanics for the job, and so he was able to get up there finish what he went up there to do and not hurt too badly until he mentioned it this evening to me after dinner, oh darn!

Shortly after we arrived home and we put our groceries away, had some lunch the mail came. And today we heard back from the IRS about that five hundred bucks they electronically put into our account a year ago last February, when we knew our refund was only supposed to be sixty-eight dollars and being an honest gal who knows how to do our taxes and we have done our own for many years online for free, Hubby and I both knew a mistake had been made and so I called the IRS that same day and gave them all the critical personal info they needed to check their mistake and they still insisted it was ours to keep! Well, not being perfect ever we took their diagnosis as being correct and so we happily accepted this, ‘found money’, gosh heaven knows who couldn’t use an additional five hundred bucks? And with our mounting medical bills it was a welcome relief to help with them. And so we remained fat dumb and happy for nine whole months and then the letter came from the IRS!
We regret to tell you that you owe us five hundred dollars and we want it now!
Well, that’s not exactly what they said but you get the gist of it.
And so I wrote back and explained that when we received it that we knew it wasn’t ours but they insisted that it was and now that entire amount would be difficult to pay back at one time and could we set up a payment plan without interest or penalties, since it was their mistake not ours.
After an interim letter stating that they would get back to us in forty-five more days but if we wanted to start paying them back we could and we opted on waiting; I even wrote that in this blog, since we had no idea what would be the amount decided on for a monthly payment plan. Today we received another letter telling us that we had to pay the entire amount by April 16, 2011 or we will be paying penalties and interest! Thus a two hour and twenty minute phone call to the number they included in the letter if we ‘had any questions’.
Hubby tried getting through to the correct person for over an hour but no one knew what he was talking about and in fact they bounced him around from person to person said that we owed nothing! Crazy, yes it is true this year we owe nothing and are not getting anything back either. But when he tried to explain that this was from 2009 they shifted him over to someone else who had no idea of what he was talking about either! The second hour and twenty-two minutes was my turn and I finally was speaking to a woman who seemed to understand but at first I could not understand her. You see, she had a heavy accent, and this time it was an Asian one and so I asked to speak to someone else because I felt that we would have difficulty understanding each other and I tried not to sound as if it was a racist remark, because in my mind it was not it was that if we couldn’t discuss something this important due to a communication problem that wouldn’t be very good, especially for me and Hubby. But she spoke slower and I listened better, see even I can learn, anyway what it boiled down to was a payment plan that we qualified for without penalties, but she could not promise without interest and she suggested writing another letter to different address this one in Philadelphia and so while she was giving it to me our house phone started beeping and then it went dead!
Who says we live in the slow lane, huh?
Oh yea that was me… well stay tuned…
All right I did get the whole address before it went totally dead but I thought it was more exciting to leave you wondering… boy I ruin all my own fun!

On that little bit of a view into my world once again let me be the first to wish you all a happy good night and ask you to count your blessings and to kindly share your overages and we will too!

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

A day of learning

After feeling a bit ill when I awoke and so I took my glucose level with my test kit that I was told to get nearly two years ago, a fasting test is always more accurate. It had been a while since I had tested, since the last time it was within in the normal range, which is below one hundred that is according to the literature that I had been given. But this morning it seemed not so good it read one hundred and twenty seven and I thought perhaps that it meant that I was now a diabetic. Fortunately, we had bought one of those beverages for glucose spikes that were for neutralizing your levels and so I took it. Within an hour I retook my glucose test and found out that it had gone up to one hundred and forty-one, not extraordinarily high for a type one diabetic, but for a woman who has been told that she is on the brink of type two for the last few years; I became concerned.

Being my normal needing to know self I contacted the available nurses at the local hospital that have free information and doctor referral services. The first one I spoke with seemed to be unsure. And I asked her what I should do, since I first had been nauseas and did vomit I asked her about that and that problem I believe is caused by my aversion to odors and as suspected she told me to eat lightly, drink liquids with crackers and don’t put any solids in my stomach until I stop vomiting for eight hours, and said to see a doctor within the next twenty-four hours. Far as my glucose numbers go they were under what she believed to be in the danger zone, and she said if it goes over two hundred then I should have it checked. But she called back later and told me that anything under one-hundred and twenty five was OK, but over was possibly diabetes type two, but that did not mean that you were a diabetic yet, huh? I don’t want to be and I suppose now is the time to get another A1C test once again, those are more telling. So once I figure out where and when, I will.
I had contacted my old friend, the professor, herself with diabetes to get a couple of names of an endocrinologist’s and her internist names to perhaps use. Hers is so upsetting she is so ill with it and her skin lesions not healing due to an extreme lack of white blood cells and a very rare blood type ‘B negative’, only 2% of the populace of the world have that blood type; my heart goes out to her and I so wish there is something I could do for her… The only thing I did do was give her my neurologists name and phone number since she also has diabetic neuropathy with everything else, so I feel useless to help her; only wish that I could.

I would like to be able to do a campaign to find her that blood type and perhaps she could get a bone marrow transplant or something. Oh, I don’t know exactly what it would take; she is a mother of three and grandmother of two and a wonderful lovely lady! It broke my heart speaking with her about what she was going through, and yet she was so sympathetic to my problems. What a decent human being.

I did contact the American MS Association, amsa.org too on my nausea problem with odors that causes that vomiting issue which in reality is NO fun and it has recently increased, and from what I could glean online it appears to be another one of those brain thingies that goes through the blood brain barrier, but not a common MS problem. I guess I will need to start jotting all this down for my neuro appointment next month. As expected she had nothing on it and when I told her that I would love to be able to go out more but as she well knew that the heat was all MS peoples enemies she said they have a free cooling vest and that I would qualify for it, since I fit their criteria for the yearly Cranial MRI, which I am due for next January!

And so she is sending me the application and it should be here any day now. Do any of you know how great that is going to be; to be able to go out again into the world? Yippee! It could mean returning to a more adventurous life amongst the exciting crowds that do things like street fairs and art shows and who knows what else! The possibilities are endless.

You see, I had the cold packs and even those beaded scarves that you dip in ice water. But to be honest they do work but in order to wear the ice packs I have to place them in my clothing, my bra, and believe me when I tell you this gal, no longer needs any help in that arena, plus it is a little more than chilling directly on the skin!
And so these vests do get filled with the cold packs too but have the fabric slots for them, perfect, and more than inconspicuous I presume?

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

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

Unfriend?

“Unfriend: The act of removing a friend from your Facebook account.
Compulsive people prune their friend list periodically, removing people that they no longer have contact with. More often though, unfriending is only done when a particular friend's updates and self-promotions become so annoying that you can no longer stand hearing about them. Or you might unfriend someone when they piss you off, however, this is not very effective since the person who is unfriended is not notified that you unfriended them and you'd be better off to keep them as a friend and plot your revenge.”
Thanks to the Urban Dictionary for this complete definition, although there is more if you go there.

Have any of you had experiences with people who said they have photo shopped you in the instant message section of your Facebook page? Or that they have an opinion of you and have discussed it with others, that one I do think is a game
I really don’t know if it is a game a joke or whatever I have not gotten an answer from the ones doing it and I do ask and so I copy their names and paste them to my search and then I unfriend them.
Most I have had no interaction with that I can remember anyway.
I suppose it is my own fault being a wise gal of wanting to friend all of those strangers!
Many are no different than any other numbers game you can think of.
Wanting more of this or that just so you can say it that you have so many!
What was I thinking, apparently not much, huh? I suppose I thought it was not greed since it had nothing to do with money, but it was just that GREEDY!

Sorry to burden you all with this problem but I am so sure that my concerns are not unique to me that is the only reason I thought that I would mention it.
I’m no youngster anymore, but I bet you all knew that and at somewhat of a disadvantage not knowing all of the ins and outs of this thing we all adopted as a social network to reconnect with friends and family, although, from my understanding it is forever changing. And I guess that could be a good thing, but will someone please send me the play book?

Moving on… that adorable little froggy I posted a few days ago is of the Cuban Tree Frog species and I heard back from our county extension who also sent me sites to go to for more information on capturing them and humanely ridding your yard of them, and here they are: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/uw259

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/UW/UW34600.pdf

Hopefully if you too find them you will recognize them and are cautious on the how and reasoning why they are not beneficial; please read those two sites if you need to know before doing anything since they do emit toxicity from their skin. From what I read briefly you should capture them wearing rubber gloves or use a plastic bag over you hands but don’t touch them! Please just go to the sites, OK?
Before I heard back Hubby had dumped our little guy out of the birdhouse he took over and he, the frog not Hubby, scampered off through the fence and so far Hubby said he hasn’t seen anymore. So we are good I guess, but now we know what to do if need be, like you all should.
Apparently, they were another one of those little critters sold for a pet and when the child got sick from the toxicity the parents or whomever released them into the wild where they have systematically created havoc in our state like so many other none indigenous creatures have. That last info was from the Sarasota Jungle Gardens, since when I contacted The Mote Marine Laboratory they said they don’t do reptiles. Well Mote; I beg to differ since the last time I asked them years ago they were very helpful; too bad no more, oh well.

Any-who, on that more informative ending to this evening allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to kindly, ask you to count all those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

PS Does that mean that I must unfriend myself since I promote this blog on Facebook? See, now this is so confusing, isn't it? LOL! But really it is.

Rain?

We got it here in ‘Paradise’, a magnificent amount of that useful resource that too many take for granted and tend to overuse.
It was bound to happen when I kept bragging about our perfect all the time weather; but to be honest we really, really, did need it!
This time of year is considered our forest fire time of year, since it is our dry season.
And boy, were we dry, according to the numbers that were in the nearly five hundred range with our southern counties below us more than seven hundred in the numbers game that constitutes a drought.
I did find out recently that those numbers actually refer to how many inches of earth are dried out, and no it is not five hundred it is five inches down into the ground is dried out, or six or seven inches, but stated by hundredths and that I do not know why it is.
If I find out I will tell you.
Today, we did get quite a nasty storm in the wee hours of the morning starting around four thirty A.M. and the yammering of the thunder and lightening woke me up!
But when I saw the clock said four thirty-three I went back to sleep and the next thing I knew it was six thirty; a better respected time to wake up; I would say.

Sleep is very important to everyone, but some have no choices due to the type of job they have. I on the other hand, seriously have no excuse about that, except the pain thingy.

Well, while writing this I had a pain around the rib cage so I went to lie down, and now I will be finishing up for this evening, since it could be just my MS hugs or who knows what, but sitting here is not very comfortable so I will close this early tonight with just this shorty, please forgive…and allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

The visit...

Have you ever gone to someone’s home and when you got there it looked like they had been homesteading there forever and that it just fit them to a ‘T’?
Now, many of us adapt easily and move our stuff from place to place in our lives and accept the new abode and assimilate well, but do many of us really fit like a glove into that domicile space?

An old friend of mine’s new for her home; you see it seems to have that appearance with her carefully chosen accoutrements from antique and thrift stores, but highly valuable rich looking finds that speak of her love for being well traveled and enjoying the better things in life!
And of course her remembrance things like the floral pettipoint enhanced comforter that her children bought as a gift for her and her Salvador Dali water color that was an incredible estate sale find for her hanging over her loveseat in the living room.
The chaise in velveteen and so many truly carefully chosen pieces all seem to fit so well in her most recent move of this past summer due to a marital split due to a philandering husband.
But as we all must think in these days of misery for each of us in all our own individual ways that some things are just a stepping stone to whatever may be the better life for oneself.
Or as some believe everything happens for a reason, sorry no need for clichés, no one wants them in their particular horror moments, and as they say a divorce is like a death in the family and so grief is a nasty horrid thing to express for most all of us.
And what to say, what to say… most say, say nothing, just listen… and so I did somewhat… but sadly my listening skills leave much to be desired but I did try and interjected, I hope with not too ridiculous observations and only meaning well encouragement, I pray.
Aside from now having to tie up some very untidy difficult ends I really feel that this woman will be doing great…why, you might ask?
She is very capable and strong to fend for herself and everyday she gets stronger still; not unlike many others who have had to deal with similar situations.

Hubby drove me there since he is my ride always. And at first he even mentioned that he might drop me off and that I should call him to pick me up. But I insisted he stay that we would not be there too long and sure enough we only stayed about an hour and half due to his saying that we should go by that time. I am not so dense that I could not tell that he was slightly uncomfortable because of the conversation. But he did hang in there longer than many other men might do in not so different a circumstance. And that dear sweet lady did include him in our conversation and asked him about household repairs that lit up his face, since those are things he does feel comfortable with!

We went there to retrieve a book that I had loaned her, one of my signed ones from the author.
This one is, “Live Like You Were Dying” by Michael Morris and the forward is by Tim McGraw, and yes it is that Tim McGraw.
You see I met Michael on one of those pharmaceutical junkets to keep us informed about all their new products that had something to do with any of the ills we may be involved with, and this was just months before Boniva came out, the Osteoporosis medication. And so they wined and dined people involved with non-profits; they flew us all to Nashville back in 2005 and we got to stay at the Lowe’s Hotel there, not the home store, by the way since I may have spelled it wrong… any-who, he was at that time also a pharmaceutical rep for that company GSK and had written this book on positive thinking and so I just said that I had to have it and blatantly requested a signed copy from him and within weeks he mailed it to me!
Am I bad, or what?
Over these last few years I have shared it with many people who I hope that his encouraging words have helped, and why not at least I do hope so.
But oddly enough I never read it myself. I know I can hear you all saying or is that laughing or yelling; "you are too weird TOBI!"
Well, I do have every intention to read this tiny marvel of information, since the whole book is only one hundred and seventy-seven pages long! Shame on me!

This marvelous strong lady in return shared one of her books with me. I only hope that my good eye will cooperate to finish hers, which in reality is not much longer than the one I loaned her.

We will see I am thinking positively…

On that note of … she said what?
Let me be the first to say that I want to wish you all a very happy good night and to 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?