What can one say...

This morning I was determined to make the most of my newest project the terrarium!
I did accomplish what I set out in my mind to do, the glass lidded jar was thoroughly washed with hot soapy water and thanks to Hubby the crushed seashells were able to be sterilized with bleach in a colander and bowl set up that he kindly had left within my reach just outside of the laundry room door on the garage floor; to make it work better and easier I used my colander with a metal bowl so as not to lose any shells and it worked!
It had been decades since I had made one of these things and so I thought to be sure it was done right that I should check online on the right way to proceed, and as usual the information was there for anyone who cares to access it.
I only had one little glitch, in the new method or perhaps the I forgot method the whole system called for more than drainage mediums like my crushed shells and moisture protection as in my moss, but activated charcoal to prevent nasty odors from exuding from the pretty arrangement that I felt it was soon to become!
So when Hubby awoke I told him that in my research I found that activated charcoal was fairly easy to come by at pet stores for aquarium filtering systems… it was way back in the early seventies when we had our twenty-nine gallon tank and so I forgot...about that if that was even used then, who knows…
By nine A.M. our closest pet-shop was right next door to our very own Publix and so Hubby kindly said that he would make the run for the projects sake!
As I said before we already had plants and potting soil so nothing else was holding it up!

The first layer was moss and bark, the second layer was the crushed seashells the third was the activated charcoal and lastly the potting soil and then of course my choice of stolen plants that is from our backyard!
Some rooting hormone was used on certain types that were clipped like the schefflera, variegated ficus tree, Boston ferns, dracaena, English Ivy, miniature palm and the decorative green moss for covering on top, and then of course all was well watered and hopefully will root; only time will tell…
It looks so pretty on the coffee table in our living room and the light is just right filtered but can be brighter if we arrange the vertical blinds how we want at any given time.
Moving on… we were, Hubby and I were given a very lovely invitation once again that we don’t know what to do about.
It is for another evening event with tickets waiting for us if we so desire… all we have to do is say yes.
But we feel this wonderful generous person is too sweet and if we take him up on his more than bighearted gift, which we had done last February for our anniversary … we feel we don’t know what to do… it’s that looking a gift horse in the mouth thingy and we have never ever reciprocated and that is NOT right… so we will be thinking on what to do carefully this time.
It is a rather lovely dilemma, but what can one say?

On that joyous quandary that we must decide on… allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all of your overages and we will too!

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

PS I did speak with Tuesday Morning’s customer service department today; did you know they have over eight hundred stores here in the U.S., any-who, Zoe said that she would send out an email memo to all those stores to make sure that the Americans for Disabilities Act is the reasoning for making access to all their stores for everyone who cares to enter and shop! She ceremoniously took my name and home phone number and said someone would get back to me, sounds good, but who knows…what will happen.

We have joined the lunacy!

Oddly enough we found ourselves becoming as much part of the holiday traffic and store rushing as the rest of the world!
And no, we were not looking for or shopping for holiday gifts, since our lists of whom we shop for is quite short, so we do it in an amazingly quick amount of time!
I won’t go into the details but most know exactly why I said what I said if they at all read this nightly.
There was a time that nothing gave me more joy than shopping for our loved ones and their loved ones or friends or extended family members, business associates etc… but in time and in many ways things can change, and for everything, perhaps there is a reason or a season…fa, la, la, la, la, la, la…

But I digress… today was for a totally utilitarian reason, us proud to be non-cable-satellite subscriber peeps had pixeling appearing on all the TV’s channels except for one, all last night and this morning. Hubby first checked all the connections to and from the antenna and the converter boxes what-have-you and all was right, except not really since we still had the problem, hmm? And so as Hubby called around to all the Geeks and all those know-it-all-peeps the consensus was that our antenna, that looks like a dish but is not, was falling down on the job and after only seven years, it was needing to be replaced, boo hoo and REALLY BIG OH POO!
Well, it saved us a fortune for its initial cost was one hundred dollars with no monthly bills, costing us a mere $14.29 a year for our TV viewing; what a deal, hmm?

And so when we felt we had no other choice we went out today amongst the tired and weary-worn from all that shopping till you’re dropping, you know those beings, why you might be one of them… with not too much cheer in their over worked ears and fears of not getting their listed items done and found which took out most of the fun and can’t remember why it was supposed be in the first place, hmm…?

We tried where we bought the one we had, Radio Shack, and they said they had but one and gave us a very nice price of only ninety dollars, it had gone down in price but Hubby felt he wanted to see if perhaps another store, Best Buy, could do better and so we went there and theirs was more by ten whole bucks and so we went back to the other store and the salesman said he was setting up another persons phone and that Hubby’s wait would be half an hour but Hubby was exhausted and short tempered and wanted to leave to try their other stores about a fifteen minutes drive either way but I said than we might as well wait here and not waste the gas, and I even said that I wanted to go into that store that had a lidded glass bowl for a possible terrarium, Tuesday Morning,… so Hubby got my scooter out and he shortly came to get me since the only one the store, RS, had, had missing brackets but their other store at the mall had some and so we went all the way back up there!
I’m getting dizzy; are you too?
Oddly enough all the same brackets were missing from the ones the store had and so you got that right, I bet you know what we did…hmm?
YES, we went back to Best Buy and bought that one!
While in Tuesday Morning which I had to wait for someone to let me in and since Hubby was in Radio Shack and I was alone on my own how freeing, except when you cannot get into the store you wish to shop in!
Any-who, a man was going in and how he did not notice me, is beyond me and so I blatantly asked him to allow me to get in there too, since he had the door open and was going to leave me there with my scooter and all!
He did open the door.
And I promptly told the one and only saleswoman about the ADA and she gave me the toll free phone number for their corporate office to tell them.
Moving on… she guestimated the proximity of where the glass jars were and she was off by a few isles but I found the one I wanted, and of course on the top shelf… and so I drove up to the front and noticed that she was checking out all her customer’s purchases and I said that when she was done that I would need her help.
But just then that is when Hubby arrived with his news of us going to the mall and so he got it down and took it to her and we paid and were on our way!

I knew I would need some gravel too for my project and so I suggested stopping at a pet store but Hubby was afraid he would run out of light to put the antenna up and so we shelved that idea for then… And I told you what happened at the mall and Best Buy just so happens to be right next door to Michaels Crafts and I said let me out while you go into Best Buy I will check to see if they have some gravel… and they didn’t, but they had moss and chopped sea shells that were within my mental budget for the project, we already had the potting soil and plants and so I got what I needed and Hubby again arrived to help with my purchases and this time he succeeded too for he carried by a box handle the new antenna for our viewing pleasure!

Now this last part is going to sound perhaps mystical or odd or just plain weird… but when we arrived home the computer was not on, and I had left it on, and I needed it to enter our buying spree items, and so I turned it back on, but weirder than all of that was the fact that when Hubby turned on the TV all the CHANNELS were working just fine again!
The antenna at Best Buy, long as we keep the receipt can still within thirty days return it, Radio Shack the time limit was only ten…and so as you can well imagine we are baffled by this anomaly of who knows what but happy too! Perhaps, we will be able to get that refund or not… who knows…all we can do is wait and see…

On that snippet view of our not so bland boring lives… allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too!

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

The Visit

Anticipation can be frightening or exciting in a very nice way.

Sometimes I have found that impromptu invasions of your domicile are less stressful than planned ones, huh?

You know the type… the ones that I so miss, from when I was a young Mom; way back in the last century, yep, all the way back then in the 1970’s!
Those were still the leftover decades of knocking on a neighbors’ door without much fanfare and never ever any fear, why you ask? I know you really didn’t, but I will tell you anyway, or perhaps you did, but sadly I still cannot hear you…

Because in those days we’re not aware of the boogeyman in the neighborhood or anyone who was there to harm us; perhaps we were clueless then, since it would take a while longer to realize any danger where we called home.

But then a knock on your front or back door was a welcoming thing, not at all an anxious concern, and so we would be thrilled with that tap, tap, tap, or ding dong from ye ole doorbell, and with joy in our voice we would say “come in!” (Sing songy like)You see, in those days some of us leftover kids from growing up in the 1950’s knew no fear and our doors were usually unlocked; yes, we were fearless and happy for the company of anyone to break up the usual mundane day of laundry, kids, cooking or what-have-you! And even more so perhaps another child would be in-tow with that visitor person, so you could have a little adult conversation while the kiddies would play… those were really the days, special and a fond wisp of a memory …YEP, YOU BETCHA!

Today, we lock our front door if we walk out our back door, how truly sad, but you gotta; who knows who will try to enter your abode.

Which brings me back to our title, The Visit, as time has marched on and neighborhoods have evolved into more transient in their memberships it seems that ceremonious invitations or request for visitation has become more of the current norm.
And so, when our dear neighbors who arrived back from their summer home in Canada to their winter home here in the SUNSHINE STATE dear sweet gotta love it FLORIDA!
They requested to come-on-over for a visit with yours truly as well as Hubby a week ago, but at the time Hubby had a doctor’s appointment and so we postponed until today.
Formality, I suppose is good sometimes and in this case if they had not asked they would have found Hubby not here, but I would have been.
Since he wanted to go on his own to meet his new doctor, and I have a tendency, as if you didn’t know, to talk a wee bit too much. The fact was he had what looked like an infection under his eye that the Benedryl did not help, so it was not an allergic reaction and so we both felt that a doctor’s intervention was needed to prescribe an antibiotic and that is exactly what he came back with!
So there were no state secrets involved this time, ha… you know me how I worry!
PS the amoxicillin seems to be working; since his face looks much better now.
Just in time for the very pleasant visit from our neighbors.
I had made a pound cake for the occasion and they brought two humongous avocados that fell off their neighbor’s tree!
Now, how’s that for sharing?
They, that is the woman, brought actual photos to show of people they love and care about, their family.
It was lovely to be included in their joy of presentation of those personal memories.

All in all, I wish we could go into a time machine so these people or others that we feel happy to see would not stand on ceremony and just feel the desire to knock on that door or even ring our doorbell; we have either way to let us know you want in!

During this holiday season, remember the good in people and visit all those you truly care about… that’s all!
A visit might be the most memorable gift you can give to someone…

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

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

Cursor is throbbing at me, binging, binging, binging... and yes I know it is silent, but if it wasn't...

What sound would your cursor make; ding-a-ling, buzz or a chirp or something else entirely?
I checked by turning my speaker on, and even though it continues to throb while it waits impatiently for me to write something anything… it bounces in what time signature?
All right it is a steady beat.
Could it be one quarter time?
It’s been years since I took a piano lesson and that was only for five years eons ago!
Have any of you also noticed this thingy creating a more than simple but unique syntax of its very own?
Imagination can run rampant when one has so much time on ones hands, hmm?
Is it just me, or if you let it; does it annoy you too?
Most of you probably never thought about it either way, eh? (For our Canadian chums whom have come back to their southern homes to roost for their allotted six months)
But you must admit, if you stare at it for a while, without moving it on from the direction it appears to prefer, left to right, how odd?
No, go with me here… why not right to left? Does it only speak one language? No of course not, it is multi-lingual!
Sure it goes where it is placed though, as long as, as we all know that it doesn’t freeze up, hmm?
Whew, been there done that… not a pleasant thought.
Had to shut the whole thing down and let it take a rest for a bit.
Some times it is more serious than that…have been known to turn off my surge protector too and start the whole shebang up again, wow is that not scary!
So I suppose, even though its constant pounding on and off it is somewhat reassuring that it is there, working, doing what it should be doing…hmm?
AHH… a sigh of relief is how we should compensate for its annoying silent beeping that could be responsible for this headache that seems to be coming on…

Tune in next time when we might discuss why on this green earth why it was given the name, CURSOR?
Hmm, that’s it, it is cursing at us all under its breath that is if it has a breath?
But alas, we all know that is impossible for it to have… or is it?
One never knows does one?
LOL!

On that another Tobi Fable based on silliness, meaning without thought or rhyme or reasoning… 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 share all your overages and we will too!

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

Variants in word usage are an automatic distraction...

Did that get your attention?
Opening lines in non-fiction and fiction are what grabs you into reading on…
And as a writing hack, myself, I do wonder how I can attract your notice to continue to be interested in whatever I have to spew nightly here.

Famous first lines or in any placement in a story can be monumental in this field that I so boldly tread on with high expectations on how to inform, entertain or just keep you away from any trouble that you might have considered without me here to steer you clear with my very pleasant but sub-worthy, trite attempts of being interesting diversions, ha!

Sci-Fi has some of the best grabber lines ever, as well as the murder mystery genre, and personally I must admit that I prefer the latter. Why I even tried my hand at writing them!

What makes you not put down a book?
Of course, we all know that great writing can be the cause of that happy malady! What is the formula for that?
It could also be a competitor with your significant other’s undivided attention who possibly has not reached the same feelings of love for the written word. I am proud to say though, in our case, Hubby’s and mine, it is usually a dual reading match that we enjoy in matching chairs I must admit creating nirvana, corny, hmm? No, simplicity at its finest!

But of recent months, my eyes have made me not such a great companion reader… I do so hope that when my favorite authors’ books are released and arrive ala our local library that I will be able to try a bit harder to regain the patience to do that which I so much miss and love, read.
My righty eye, as you all know is a goner, and lefty is finicky to say the least and so when he miss behaves he makes sticking to the page of desire quite a challenge. Well, I have been waiting long enough and when those novels arrive there I will make an enormous effort to accomplish such a little thing I imagine for most. Large print is fine, but for some unknown reason books on tape I have not had the patience to attempt… Geez I know they are easy, just put them in whatever device you have to and listen; how hard can that be?
Well, as we all know as I have mentioned before I have a listening problem, and a slight hearing problem… I have jest that my heroine, Helen Keller is channeling me…if only!
She overcame so much and went on to accomplish so much in her life!
Children should read her story, ‘The Miracle Worker’, and would never complain again for little things that are wrong, oh wait I read her story when about twelve years old and saw the Patti Duke movie version not much after, and here I still complain nightly… What can I say; except that sharing is also a form of helping others…? BIG SMILE HERE!
Compassion is putting yourself in another person’s place and that is something that we all need to be reminded of at all different times in our lives to keep on going!
So why not read about someone who did it in spite of not having the ease of choice but eventually conquered all her limitations with intelligence and grace and lived a fulfilling and sharing life, and in the end she became a teacher, a very noble profession.

On that pleasant thought in these hard times allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly 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?

Great ideas, common sense and more oxymoron...

Here’s a ‘great idea’ on how to save money this holiday season… DON’T SHOP, in other words, “don’t spend any money…,” a wild concept, hmm? I know it’s an old way of handling an age old problem, specifically being short on funds… but a tried and true method to resolve it, hmm?
I know that I am too late already, with Black Friday and Small Business Saturday done with and now being on the cusp of Cyber Monday, but go with me here…
Why not, for next year plan ahead and spread out purchases over the year by saving up first, not on layaway but in a saving’s account and then budgeting yourself and sticking to that budget.
Whatever happened to those holiday clubs, you know the ones... Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza what-have-you, all good; if I recall. Or put the money away on your own away, in a pretend account separate from your bank account that is accessible if an emergency arises by dividing your own checking into savings and checking on paper and not touching the money you move over in your own record, got that?
I hate to think with all those sales over the last few days that too many will find themselves in financial difficulty once again…really are our memories that short!
Think of me as being just a polite intervention here, okay?
Don’t answer; I know what you’re thinking…. MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS LADY!
But I mean well… sure I do...what other motivation could I have? Since this advice is free too!

Gosh, that’s me all over the place, an interfering witch (actually the rhyming one is me) that I am… any-who moving on…
Question, if common sense is so common why do so few people have it?
If thinking is a process, what do we do to get there?
And we all know that an oxymoron is best explained by the words; ‘jumbo shrimp’ or ‘wise fool’ or ‘legal murder’ that all are contradictory words used for some odd reason together. More here for your enjoyment/amusement: http://www.oxymoronlist.com/

My processes are working at times and at other times not so much… but I digress… what makes you wonder why?
George Carlin the comedian was another person to be listened to, for me he made me wonder and why I should wonder…
Below are some of his pearls of interesting wit and wisdom: thanks to Brainy Quote.com.
“George Carlin Quotes:

Always do whatever's next.
George Carlin

At a formal dinner party, the person nearest death should always be seated closest to the bathroom.
George Carlin

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
George Carlin

By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth.
George Carlin

Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time.
George Carlin”

Read more if you so wish: just copy and paste: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/g/george_carlin.html#ixzz1ex44AZr5

On this much to think/laugh about allow me to be the very first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too!

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

Time goes on and so must we...

Before the Common Era, BCE is now which is what the old B.C. was, and CE is the Common Era, which we live in now that used to be A.D. are you following this?
Learning never ends does it?
And boy, I was under the impression that I was living in 2011 A.D., Geez who knows when this all changed to that above mentioned Politically Correct, PC, time period?
Being out of the loop can be annoying and frustrating, but most of all when someone uses the phrase, word or what-have-you, it creates a dumb factor expression on my mug that I have noticed gets harder to hide as I get older.
It’s not the fact that I am getting any dumber, oh maybe, but in truth I must have forgotten more than most college kids have learned to date! But, you know the more that gets into that brain through actually listening or osmosis or whatever, it appears to be, at times, to be more difficult to access, have you noticed that? Sort of like misplacing your keys, get it? You know where they are, somewhere, but not exactly.
I seem to recall this starts earlier than most would think, before age thirty.
But who knows, I do know somewhere in that space between my ears that we euphemistically call my ‘noggin’ ala brain encasement, hmm?
Intriguing how things become anew for us to learn sometimes the TV news may carry it on all the channels and herald it to the whole wide world but then, like this thing above, it’s more demure in its pronouncement, why it must have been taught in a whisper, since I never ever heard of it before!
Oh sure, you all probably knew that already, right?

See, being at home so much you would think this gal has way too much time on her hands, which I do, but how I spend it is not as fruitful as it probably could be.
I should if not as tired as I am, did you know I awoke at 4:44 A.M. this morning?
And I am up most all night long still, I suppose that thyroid medicine will be a few more weeks before it kicks in, and yes I read it is supposed to help with that problem as a few others like my incredible appetite and weight gaining issues…
Waiting, and so with all this time that I have, besides looking up things that I periodically find a miniscule interest in, nah its bigger than that… I was looking up the person who was trying to find an honest person, since this lying thing has me feeling like I expect too much from everyone.
It could be even considered unhealthy to be so concerned with wanting the world to always tell the truth.
And yes, we have visited this topic before and my blatant honesty has gotten me in trouble more times than not, but tempering that with kindness, to me, borders on dishonesty.
And that is why most days I find myself all alone, because being too honest is a negative thing in this world who wants to hear only the good not the bad… and so this is my forum to share it all!
Let’s face it; you are mostly all I got!
That is to tell my truth to.

On that not as funny as I wanted to be, but you gotta admit some of it may have caused a bit of a grin… allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and to ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too!

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