Heart's Desire

Doing whatever you want whenever you want to, how’s that sound?
Financial freedom, to have the health of a youngster with good genes for years of enjoyment…a home that’s care free without owing monies on a mortgage, or concerns of insurances for care of it or you or even your vehicles including no worries of fluctuating taxes or utility costs; in other words ‘peace of mind.’

Most would claim that working till you drop or until you are too old to enjoy any of the above mentioned concepts is how to achieve that ‘peace of mind’ or as many realize security.

Less is more is what I have learned to exist with due to knowing that it too has its benefits, where smaller can be better too!

It all boils down to priorities and needs versus wants, true?
Basic needs can easily be met and refinement and class of that can be had by being rational in knowing what is truly important to commit to that ‘h’ word, oh, okay I’ll say it, H-A-P-P-Y, my only reason for hesitation was the fact that I myself have been guilty of overusing it.
But it is a fine word and it does mean what it says, huh?
You betcha!

Moving on… the title for tonight is your, ‘heart’s desire’, which in truth is that which makes you happy, right?

And so that is what you must have considered by late young adulthood or early middle age, and by then you must have considered what is the one or more things you would have to do to achieve that result.

PS Thinking is free.
And from what I noticed and it sure doesn’t have to take too much time out of your busy day, since hopefully most are doing it anyway, thinking that is, ha!

Allow it to trickle into your other important thoughts as a side trip, perhaps?
Some refer to this as daydreaming; which some believe is a lost art.
Brilliant men and women have come to conclusions on many innovations, inventions and medical breakthroughs and the like using this method of thought for the betterment of men/women kind!
Taxing your brain to go into a mode of thought should come naturally though, as we know it is there for the taking, huh?
And so it is not an exhausting exercise, just a wonderful experience of investigation into what is there or could be there, who knows… you could find out things you never knew about yourselves, ya think?
Ha!
Yep, that’s what I am talking about, thinking!
To think is to believe, to imagine, reflect, feel, consider, suppose, assume, sense, deem, reason, contemplate, ponder, deliberate, mediate, mull over, weigh up, ruminate, cogitate and judge and that’s a mouthful, but if you think it and don’t say it you can still eat while doing it, TA DA and HA; something to think about any-who, huh?

On that ridiculous or not so ridiculous germ of an idea, watch out if you do it, it could take off like a contagion!

And continuing on that note of what did she say that for?
Allow me to kindly ask you to count all your blessings and to share all your overages and we will too!

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

PS Andy Rooney what’s the big deal really? Except now you (Mr. Rooney) can call it in; which anyone should do at your marvelous age of 92, in my opinion that should have been arranged years ago for you to do!
Personally, all of us are better for seeing him and listening to him weekly and will miss him dearly for those confidential chats… secretly, my unrealistic dream was to be a bit like the great man in my look at our world… but who knows I have 31 more years to try for that since that is when I will catch up to him, if only! That is if only I can stay on some defined topics of interest to all...we will see or not… His send off is this Sunday, don’t miss it!

Distressed?

Distressed means upset, distraught, troubled, concerned, worried, anxious, unhappy, bothered, in pain, suffering, anguished and tormented.
Little did I know at one time that furniture too could be distressed, why I myself have been, heaven knows in distress, for years! LOL!
For any furniture décor novices out there the meaning of ‘distressed furniture’ is furniture that looks weathered or antiqued or as some prefer to call it Shabby Chic.
When we moved into this home our last destination, back in 1998, as I so fondly think of it, meaning our little retirement home, I felt that a homey softened beachy look would be an appropriate décor for this tiny cutey in transition.
This little darling was a fixer upper and we went at it with loving decisiveness inside and out.
But due to Hurricane Charley back in 2004 we had to start the process over again and now we had a new concept on what we had in mind, at least I did, and Hubby gave me free reign on the decorating.
Being this was our fifth home together over at that point, of 33 years of marriage in 2004, and that I had not screwed up previously I decided to go this time with the coastal cottage distressed looked, which is a relaxed homey style.
Although, a few people thought we bought damaged merchandise, not understanding the concept. The best part is that you don’t have to worry about coasters if someone spills anything or scratches in moving things around it all just adds to the patina!
Yes, there are scratches and burns and nicks all over our furniture but purposely there and well placed.
And to many people’s surprise the cost for this look is higher than regular furniture, but at the time it was after the devastation and we had been insured and to be true and honest prices of furniture did go up in price since we had last purchased it many years before but still for a small home we had a budget of 15K and that is what we spent just on the furniture, not paint, art, bathroom fixtures, floor tiles or carpets, which at first both bedrooms were carpeted but later we tiled the master like the rest of the house. To this day I am not sure that was too much, but I am happy with my choices for this tiny five room home.
If it wasn’t due to the fact that I wanted to be back into our home faster than anything, I may have waited to go here and there to perhaps an antique dealer or shows or what-have-you but no I wanted to be back inside our home and out of the 240 sq foot trailer we were living in alongside of our home!
For years when our sons were young we loved camping and we went often using tents, pop-up-campers, and trailers and a fifth wheel over those many years, but somehow spending too much time for the wrong reason makes you not have the same affection for the concept.
No more camping for me!

Over these last seven years we are still tweaking what we want at a much smaller budget of a few bucks here or there.
We do go to home shows and at times I do see things that are speaking to me, as a woman, but I tease and to many a horrified face I say, we redecorate after hurricanes and so perhaps next time.
Too weird, I am sure for many of you to understand but one thing living through a devastating hurricane does when it destroys things you held near and dear it teaches that sentimentality over things is an exhausting wasteful past-time.
And so basically we all have to learn that we cannot change what has happen and to laugh at its possibility of happening again and DON’T GET ATTACHED TO INANIMATE OBJECTS! Besides; I think that would hurt…bud dump bum…

On that little bit of a lesson on how to get over your attachment to things, 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 to share all your overages and we will too!

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

When was the last time you watched something you loved get destroyed because of...

Caring too much for it?
I don’t know how many of you out there are cleaning fanatics/freaks or as I truly feel I just prefer things to look nice, clean and neat too? And there is nothing wrong with that is there? NO!
Well, over the many years I have been on this planet I have been accused of being, at times too clean or too neat with straightening things after someone gets up or clearing a table and doing dishes before we were done eating, that sort of thing that I suppose could be annoying to many.
Unfortunately, over these last several years without the abilities I once had I have had to let some of my obsessions go by the wayside and I might add much to my fastidious self’s chagrin.
The only thing I still do or had been doing until we bought a different type of doormat is washing those cute bath-types with cheerful pictorials on them that are rubber coated underneath mats, which prevents slippage on tile which, 90%, most of our home is. And every time they appeared soiled, which depended on what was on them, that is if it could be shook out that’s a whole different story and I would succumb to that, but more often than not many would assume to do it I would put them in the washing machine to get what I considered a really good cleaning! And also place them in the dryer, although if it looked as if it wasn’t going to rain they would possibly be placed out side on our retractable clothesline.
So you can well imagine that the rubber backing was compromised as well as the border trims too would get frayed and would make a disgraceful mess in the dryer!
And so when the two favorites I had one at the front door and one at the back both looked beyond what would be safe and a bit too natty it was time to replace them.
And so sadly with a heavy heart when our number one son was down with his gal pal we had gone to the mall and I found two normal rubber outdoor quality ones that were also colorful and one was fish like its fabric/ rubber backed predecessor and one was tropical with a parrot not too dissimilar in the feel of my hula gal front our door one that is what I try to project upon entry into our fine abode, is a tropical paradise!

Any-who, I asked Hubby not to, throw them out my damaged favorites and so he saved them both!
I had thought I had only requested the hula gal one but he saved both, how thoughtful, huh?
Odd you say and why would you want damaged goods?
Oh contraire Mon Amis those darling charming hand designed with whimsy love artful pieces would eventually, in my mind make adorable wall hangings?
And so today was the day, Hubby had stored them both in the garage and I asked him yesterday if he could give me the hula gal one. I figured our bath mats and one left in the laundry room mat all similar in quality but not tattered could use a bath in the machine and so for the last time hula gal got her refresher and extra softener too!
Hubby asked me what I wanted to do.
Well, I had a plan in my head as usual… a no cost wall art piece danced in my brain and so did it’s location of where it would go once completed!
Needing Hubby has been a lifelong thingy with us.
He is amazingly capable to make wishes come true, and this time he did not disappoint either.
My idea was to utilize a few more of the cedar fence pieces, which seem to go on forever.
We had been given the fence a few years ago by a neighbor and since have encompassed our yard, and Hubby has made everything from an arbor to raised beds for the veggie garden to valances to a rolling cart not to mention all the this and that’s I have come up with like this one today a frame for our rug wall hanging!
He asked me if I wanted it painted and I thought I might since I have all these acrylic paints in my craft draw, but nah this time I decided the rustic look was in and would look just right!
And so, are you ready?
Here’s the finished product/project, at a cost of…. Drum roll please…$0000000000 etc.!

All in all Hubby did all the work himself, since I couldn’t staple it even due to this darn thumb thing!
If you are wondering what the flower thingy is, well it’s our metal ivy floral ensconced mirror in our foyer.
The picture is not crooked again… you see the pitch of the ceiling is angled on purpose, since we have false vaulted ceilings in here and does make our tiny place look larger.

And so I just thought it could be a project that others might think of trying with something they love, and you can make frames from just about anything these days, look around your garage, it’s another way to recycle and is very green.

Now allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to kindly ask you count all your blessings and to share all your overages and we will too!

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

How long?

Minor injuries or not so minor injuries, how long do they take to heal?
It’s been ten days as of today and so far the coagulation strips have not fallen off my avulsion skin on my thumb injury.
Isn’t it the norm for healthy healing to take anywhere from seven to ten days?
The whole thing is getting quite old and annoying, since I have to soak it a couple of times a day and with all my other meds and shot etc. daily, I just wish it would get better already, ya know?
I guess I sound like a baby complaining; it’s not like I had a really bad cut, this is only about a little over an inch long but it is in a precarious place being on my right thumb, since I am right handed!
As a lefty I am a failure; although, it hasn’t stopped me from trying to become ambidextrous, my maternal grandma was.
You see, I was supposed to see the doctor, Hubby’s doctor who was now mine too a few days after the injury, but… it’s gotta be me… and you know it’s getting to look that way, but we received a notice in the mail a few days after I had the initial injury that he, the new doc will be closing his practice on October 8th, and he is moving out of state!
And it seems that every other day we have been calling for an appointment and his receptionist says he has been staying at the hospital to take care of those patients.
I just need a look see and Hubby just wants additional refills on his blood pressure meds until we find another doctor!
CRAZY! And of course I never mentioned that my original neurologist left a couple of years ago and so did my gynecologist too, it’s gotta be me…nah, it’s the ECOMNOMY STUPID! Sound familiar?
I live in a county where the unemployment rate is still over 11% and the foreclosure rate still is going fairly too well too. Thus with all those non positive economic barometers anyone who has to make a living logically would be questioning the reason why to stay here I suppose, huh?
Sadly, we are a community that does have a high retirement population who does need medical professionals and many are on Medicare but some too could be on Medicaid the way things are, I don’t have any way to know about that, but it is probably a lot!
So I ask you all what will happen to us, the ill and elderly? I am done moving and besides our home’s value is probably lower now too… so not worth the aggravation!
Fixed incomes mean just that, we, I suppose are much better off than many but not as good as some.
It does make sense that a doctor or any professional would look to where the grass was greener to work and even to get paid a realistic income for that work.
And so, I suppose we will all have to become better at handling our own maladies and learn the best way to do it all, hmm?
CRAZY!
I’m no doctor, not even a nurse, sure I was a Mom and then I knew when you had to go to emergency and did that real well! Of course, I took first aid courses and even took CPR for a few years, self help course from the state health department and of course certified Aquacize instructor and grant writer class, but none of that is helpful for any of this! I didn’t even know I had an avulsion of the skin until I read it on my directive on how to care for the injury and even then I had to look it up to really know!

Any ideas on coping with our lack of decent medical help locally please come on and suggest! In my comments corner or email, okay?

On that, what the heck; this is NOT FUNNY TOBI!?

Allow me to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share your overages and we will too!

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

PS my thumb does hurt intermittently but it is not discolored only where the coagulation strips were applied and they are a lovely bloody black color! The rest of the thumb is not different from the rest of my pale skinned hand, although my thumb nail still had blood under it no matter how much I soak it (LADY MACBETH watch out!), but still below my inner wrist I still have a black and blue bruise from that time about a day after the original incident that it went a bit weird sensation and pop a black and blue booboo, see not a medico more like a Mommy! HA!

Pandemonium, peace, petunias...OH MY!

Pandemonium: chaos, mayhem, bedlam, racket, uproar, and hubbub, peace: calm, quiet stillness, tranquility, silence, harmony, and serenity, petunias: purple of the Mexican persuasion…
What do these words have to do with one another?
Nothing one might say.
But you would be very, very wrong.
Personally I love my Mexican petunias and to me they are not only beautiful to look at and easy to maintain they are prolific in their growth pattern and that seems to be the so-called problem with them…hmm?
Yes!
Sadly these meek and mild and very likable plants that spread without much assistance are considered an invasive breeder and hard to kill, and are somewhat considered illegal aliens… BUT I BOUGHT THEM YEARS AGO AT A HOME STORE here right here in Port Charlotte!
And to my knowledge they still sell them.
They are also in many public buildings surroundings gardens including Fisherman’s Village.
So what’s the big deal?
”WARNING
Mexican petunia is listed as a Category I invasive species by the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council. This means that it is "altering native plant communities by displacing native species, changing community structures or ecological functions, or hybridizing with natives". This warning applies to all parts of the state of Florida (and other areas with similar mild climates). Where hardy, the Mexican petunia excels at invading wetlands.”
From the below site:


Copyright 1996 - 2010
Floridata.com LC
Tallahassee, Florida USA



I’m so confused and it’s so pretty and why do they sell them to unsuspecting people to share with friends and neighbors, and even relatives, etc…?
You know some things should come with a warning, ya know?
I did not realize that while I thought I was spreading beauty I was actually spreading pandemonium and not much peace of what I thought to be an easy care plant for the masses which in turn would mean peace of mind… how could I be so wrong?
I feel dreadful.
Little did I think at this point in my life I would be spreading a cancer of flora throughout our delicate ecosystem?
Below are the innocent looking criminals or as many call them bad plants to raise in your loving well-meaning home:

DO NOT BE FOOLED! THEY ARE THE UNWANTED CULPRITS OF OUR STATE ENVIROMENTAL ECO SYSTEMS BALANCE GUYS OR IS IT GALS?
NOT JUST ANOTHER PRETTY FACE!

I suppose there could be something to all the hoopla since Hubby has been known to have to remove them from our lawn where they took it upon themselves to root themselves into and tried hard to multiply!
We find the best way to handle the problem is to keep them contained in our backyard; the ones above are out in our front garden.
They make a lovely three foot privacy fence/hedge along our one side where we still have a chain-link fence so we can see out to the west for sunsets and we also have very lovely Plumbagos and Allamandas as well decorating the fence down to the canal in alternating colors of yellows (Allamandas) and blues (Plumbagos) and purples (Mexican petunias).
To me, it is a festival of color.


On this incredible realism of a time where nature and innocence could be lost forever and do not pleasantly jive in harmony… With my heavy sad heart now due to my no good gardening ways being exposed… allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and to share those overages and we will too!

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

Interesting to me and me only...perhaps...or not...

This is the representation of all the elephants in your rooms and so now you do not have to be concerned any longer since you can see that I have him contained,

and so fear no more! I got your backs too! And this is not smoke and mirrors it is very real and if you must know how it is done... I discuss it all, those so-called taboo topics, here nightly, so you don't have to.

TA DA! I thought it was viable to mention in my own interest that no cruelty to the animal that is my model under the empty cage/ vegetable/ fruit bowl who is my elderly onyx elephant. Unfortunately, his trunk was chipped years ago, but I could never bring myself to put him down, and as you can see he has survived in spite of his injury, which some say makes him no longer good luck. Well, I never! (Wink, wink, sure I have) There you go, my bad luck caused by clumsiness, so typical of me!
What do you think of my opening monologue?
Oh, wait, this whole thing is a monologue every single night!
No actual repartee just all one sided talk/write to me ala one way discussions on everything from A to Z and everything in between…OH WHAT FUN, huh? A wee bit psychotic too? Nah, than all writers must be…well, we all know the answer to that one, some of the best were, a little off that is, but drug induced. Perhaps, some of my legal physician prescribed ones was what once were the ones that were not, legal that is?
Well over three years now of this nonsense and I have been aiming to try for silly talk too!
After all my goal here, and yes friends there is a reason for all this… (Imagine me spreading my open hands around in circle as I explain the why, OK?)
Is to entertain and secondarily to possibly inform as much as my wee brain will allow and slipshod method of fact checking helps me be the long winded provider of interesting commentary nightly for your consumption, got that?
Okay, I’ll wait for you to catch up; I do realize some of this is way too deep for many with common sense brains and no leeway for Tom Foolery or in my case Tobi Foolery!
Long enough, what do you think I have all night?
Ha, of course I do… what else have I got but this?
Sad, but true.
Geez, that’s NOT FUNNY!
Moving on… apparently many do read what I put on my Facebook wall occasionally or I should say cumulatively over many seasons… today I did hear from some one from where I grew up but they did not read the part that I was from her town which is right there on my profile page!
Whoa, upsetting!
Just when you think you are reaching people they foul up your thinking, but gosh I discovered that many are just surface readers just like many are surface cleaners.
You know the types that sweep the dirt under the rug or don’t move the stuff on the shelf when dusting?
We used to call that doing things half-assed, I think that description still applies with people who like your link but don’t click on it and actually READ IT!
I suppose there is nothing one can do about that, and now in my own unique way I have probably alienated more possible prospects… to read my blog nightly.
You would think at this point with my insecurities of popularity that I would give pop quizzes on what I wrote to my public, but noooo……… not in my true nature, although from this you might now know I have thought of it.
Stat wise, weekly, ten countries read this trite dry rot of mine and I have had over nine thousand hits on my posted blog in the last two years since the first year the count was lost due to a computer malfunction, but if I recall it was also a few thousand as well, and for all this I should not be so self doubting, but all us artist types are, ya know…LOL!
Kidding, chill and I will too.
Did I meet my promise of entertaining you tonight?
If so, let me know, if not keep it to yourself.
On that blanket statement of my true oblique self portrayal of me 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 to share all your overages and we will too!
And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Mistakes can happen to just about anyone...and I have proof!

And below is mine…

“Saturday, Sep. 24, 2011
2300 El Jobean Rd., Port Charlotte, FL 33948
Port Charlotte, FL

Local Phone: Please contact the Charlotte Sports Park at 941.235.5010

The Great Garage Sale at the Charlotte Sports Park
Charlotte County Community Services will host The Great Garage Sale at the Charlotte Sports Park on Saturday. Parking and admission are FREE!! Booth space for this event is available on a first-come, first-served basis. A 10x10 space consisting of one (1) 8 foot table and one chair for $21.40. A 20x20 space consisting of two (2) 8 foot tables and two chairs is available for $32.10. Completed applications along with full payment MUST be received by Wednesday, July 27. The Great Garage Sale will take place rain or shine - no refunds will be given for this event due to inclement weather.
Location: Charlotte Sports Park
Hours: 8 am-1 pm”



Today I was so looking forward to going anywhere, and so I searched
the net as I always do to see what was going on locally.

Both Hubby and I got ready to go since I needed to take my shower by the time he got up and soak my thumb avulsion injury and take my Copaxone shot and dry my hair and my thumb and re-bandage it… and get on my cooling vest; Hubby loaded in the icepacks for it.

And then I had to do a little of this and that to be ready to get into the car all to get going for our fun time out for the late morning.
We figured we would only stay for about an hour or so, and we left the house at eleven A.M. knowing that it wouldn’t be over until one P.M….
Our arrival there was about eleven twenty or so, give or take a few minutes. There were not many cars in the parking lot and we could not see any tables from where we entered and so Hubby drove round the outer circle to see perhaps if they were set back a ways…
And after a loop around to be certain I suggested to Hubby maybe it was on the ball field and since he had noticed that the gate was open and the parking lot closest to the stadium did have a sign but it said, ‘Open House’, not ‘THE GREAT Garage Sale,’ or even not so great sale. He went up to the open gate to find someone to ask, while I waited in the car.
Shortly Hubby was back shaking his head and said that the Sandcrabs were playing a game and there were about fifty people in the stands, and no garage sale tables
Just ballplayers and fans in the stadium seats.
Darn! Disappointment was thick in me.
I knew I wasn’t probably going to buy anything, except if I saw some neat looking hooks that I decided were an idea to start a collection and usually only a few bucks.
They would be on either side of our foyer mirror, the cute framed post cards I placed there from our trip to Seaside Florida back in ’05 stuck to the colorful frames I made
And there was no way to fix them without ripping them out of the frames and then tearing them to shreds, and so I thought about collecting interesting coat/hat/sweater hooks to place on either side of the mirror that they now flank. That is what I thought would be an inexpensive useful item to acquire, oh well…next time…

This is late not because of my starting late but perhaps when I tried to copy and paste the above info from its source it rearranged my margins and this has been a heck of a job trying to get it all where I could read what I wrote…
Any-who, back to my story... sweet man Hubby, asked me what we should do now, he had no idea what to do to have some excitement in our not so boring but not so calm too lives.
And so I suggested seeing if anything else was going on at the Beach Complex which was on our way home if all else failed.
We drove in and nearly as quickly drove out, nothing there either; it’s one of the ones I could find a site for.
But Hubby came through and suggested since it was nearing lunch time to go to a fast food chain, since we did have some cash on us (plus if we went in the house had lunch and then went out again Skipper would go berserk…and grab a quick lunch out would be less upsetting for him), and Long John Silvers was on our way wherever we were going and now served grilled fish too that is healthy and at bargain prices. The itinerary was decided on the Charlotte County Historical Center. That is where our book Summer of Storms is sold, published by the Peace River Center for Writers and my entry is on page 58?
Well, the books weren’t out, and they said they were in storage and would put some out and so if you go there ask for them for one.
The volunteer there was quite talkative and we seemed to be having a talk off! She and I spoke constantly, she is the cousin to one my old friends from the Writers’ Group I used to belong to.
Enthusiasm was abounding for her to explain all the historic paintings/water colors that portrayed buildings that told the story of our counties beginnings.
Many I was familiar with, since her cousin is also a history buff, especially on Punta Gorda memorable topics, since it is where she had been born and raised.
And so the visit was pleasant and access was easy for my scooter up their long wide ramp.
All in all the day had turned out to not be as big a disappoint as I first thought it would be; although we did arrive home around two thirty, and that was along day out for me.

Why you ask?
Not as one would think due to all my ailments, but I guess they could be responsible for that, but I had awoken around 3:42 A.M. and could not go back to sleep…

On that comment of interest perhaps yes or not…allow me to be the first to wish you all a very good night and to ask you kindly to count all your blessings and to share all your overages and we will too!

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

PS I did call the toll free number also listed when that local number gave me a recording and they told me they would have someone get back to me to see if the GREAT GARAGE SALE had been postponed or something, who knows…but the woman took my name and phone number and so may be the mystery will be solved, huh?