Ordinary for most...

Being this retired bum that I call myself, no one else who is retired thinks like that I am very sure.

Though, me actually giving up so much a few years back of my extra curricula activities for various reasons…

And failing terribly at trying hard to go back to being involved in a non-profit, thinking that I had something to offer, but made to feel like I was lesser than…after forty years on and off of working in all aspects of the numerous fields of non-profit…I retreated until…

My jaunt back into trying to be healthier from an exercise program that at one time was also second nature to me, but in my present condition had to be modified… and so I think I have dealt with that not too badly, although a rather selfish comeback, with a relapse and other issues, but in the long run a beneficial decision.

And today I did succeed in my current program advancing with that new overhead piece of equipment; I did twenty-five reps instead of one set of ten reps in one direction and then switching and doing another ten more reps behind my head. Since I did find out that my shoulders don’t do well that way without severe pain and so I did the one in front and those twenty-five times and that was just fine! Of course my fifteen minutes on the arm cycle split in half each way, and my one hundred reps on the total gym, success!

I called yesterday about a Multiple Sclerosis support group in our area and found one.

Years ago I called, but being that it is in the evening, which is not usually my best time of day; I nixed it.

The reason I decided to call the other day was because some days I feel I am  wearing on Hubby’s last nerve with me needing his help, some times he makes me feel that I ask for too much and way too often.

The reason I felt now would be a good time to go is since it is not only for people with MS but also for their caregivers, and I do believe he needs as much support as I do, but still an evening event, only once a month though.

I figured he could also compare notes with others as I will be doing, but of course as all support groups are none are pity-parties; I used to be co-president of the arthritis support group for a few years, since I also have that… which led to all the other stuff, fund raising, board member, teaching Aquacize and being trained to teach a self help course as well as trained to write grants…how I miss all that, but realistically I am no longer in any condition to do any of that! I still do advocacy online and that’s it.

No, this is purely to compare notes with everyone else after the noted speakers’ talk, which is what we would have too. Local physicians in various related fields would discuss things like orthopedics, rheumatology, physical therapy, occupational therapy, etc… you get the idea and that is what this woman in charge, named Nikki said that they do too, but in neurology and related fields of course, although, on occasion, the restaurant where they have been meeting will periodically even underwrite the meal for all attending, nice little perk, I’ll say.

We did end up at the Cultural Center today for our very reasonable lunches once again. Mine, was homemade New England clam chowder and salad for $4.95 for both and Hubby’s, was pastrami on rye with a dill pickle and spicy mustard for $5.95 with tax, the whole shebang just, $11.66! No tips there due to the cafeteria style and we drink our own brought in beverages thus the bargain.

Scoping out the Trash and Treasure shop as we do every time we go, but we didn’t find anything that hit us that we needed or loved that is unless… you could count the telephone wire for our old land-line telephone that had a broken one, its the one that works when the power goes out or the cell towers go down, so it is important. Hubby found one in an unmarked price-wise case on a shelf in a corner and asked the man that we usually have asked before about prices and he said, take it, no charge and the man told the lady at the register, how unexpectedly nice! I guess he remembered we went there often, although, we haven’t bought anything in quite a while…

On that note of a pleasant surprise, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Déjà vu

A southerner of some notoriety has once again used the filthy disgraceful epithet of the, ‘N’ word!

And you won’t hear it here, me naming names, but her name does rhyme with green, shame on you! This happens way too often still in this, the twenty-first century, why, it’s got to be just racked up to stupidity?

Another horror a multimillionaire spent too many of his bucks on an obscene wedding in the woods and destroyed nature in the process, but felt paying his way out of the humiliation of his parties destruction by throwing more money at ecological organizations! And his name I will not reveal, but sadly many parks would be deeply upset with his behavior with him nearly being their namesakes. Who cares what he spent on the festivities, but why destroy nature in the process because you can, hmm?

The market plunges over three hundred points just today, but it has before and came back, true?

Oddly enough, and sadly too, a TV mobster who broke many heads and other body parts while he portrayed one of the most lovable guys in his family business, Tony Soprano, said with a crooked nose outta joint… The man out of the role was deeply loved by his family, friends and his fans and when he died of a massive heart attack while vacationing in Italy yesterday, the people kept their feelings flying by all Medias means! And his name was James Gandolfini and he was only fifty one years young and he will be sorely missed by all. 

Sadly too many of us die too young, famous as well as regular Joes and Janes…

Daily the news reports make us realize that history does indeed repeat itself, and we are here to listen, read or do whatever they wish from us to respond to these fascinating, tedious and sometimes too repetitive stories that chill our bones, makes us cry, ask us to wonder why again and again… you get my point.

Why does stupidity seem to have an upper hand at times, more times than not?

Notoriety allots some to have that voice even if most of us would be happier not to hear them.

But they shout way too loud and then complain when they are misquoted or their privacy is invaded, does that sound right to you?

BEHAVE if your name is well known, me not so much, oh alright, me too…

No one knows me.

Not really…

Many feel when they express themselves by writing, especially as I do without borders I like to think I have no hidden agendas, huh?

I meant without filters and that I am pretty much an open book and what could I have up my sleeves, really?

Who cares?

You and I are no different; we all have grown up with ideas, opinions, and inane talents, okay maybe some with more serious abilities?

We have the knowledge the same as the famous to do things… anything, but I do believe we know the difference from right and wrong, why you might ask? Because our parents taught us! Where were theirs?

Sure we wandered away from them as we grew older and were influenced by teachers, friends, and friends of friends, relatives, business associates and who knows who?

But mostly our opinions were developed from all the gleaning of what those years of being bombarded with life’s experience acquired?

All of that has proven, tantamount to a very healthy education of how things actually work, right?

So we too have arrived, and so I reiterate why must we listen to the same no news stories be reported again?

Royals have babies, so do non-royals, us commoners have/had them too!

We marry, we die…but it’s what we have done in between that should be newsworthy, okay?

Next they will be reporting that some hotshot was breathing today?

Give me a break...

People are still sadly racist, don’t give them the time of day or a soapbox and some millionaires don’t give a fig about ecology, campaign for them to become more aware and if I had a baby tomorrow it would not be covered by any news agency, oh wait it would, since I am over, way over, watch that self, note to self, sixty years old! HA!

Not much we could do about the market except put a gag on the people telling the stats of things they know that will have an effect on it, that’s an idea, a gag order, where did I hear that one, oh yea they use it in a court of law, folks!

Dying is a whole other thingy, and gosh I wish there was a quick fix, they the powers that be claim that a healthy diet and exercise can fix just about anything, except the diseases they have no cure for, still too many cancers, as well as other fatal ones and of course mine, Multiple Sclerosis, but I hear tell many laymen as well as noted medical professionals are working hard for that cure too! And that redundant news blurb I would love to hear any day, wondering which... why any of them that is the next major one that has been cured!

So on that note of hoping you heard me, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and to share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Flubs, mistakes and who really cares... huh?

BREAKING NEWS

Depression becomes Tropical Storm Berry Forecasters say a tropical depression crossing Mexico's Bay of Campeche has gotten better organized… Received by email 2:57 P.M. on today Wednesday June 19. 2013. I so enjoy receiving breaking news from the Tampa ABC affiliate, where our closest, biggest city is and has a fine group of news anchors and meteorologists who usually move on to major news groups once leaving this south eastern largest market area next to Miami I believe, but I could be wrong, I’ve been wrong before… Any-who, in most cases their mistakes are minimal, which is why I do enjoy receiving breaking news blurbs/items from them. Although, not that it really matters that much but the second northeastern Atlantic tropical storm of the hurricane system after Andrea that just passed is actually called Barry, although Berry is cute, Barry is its name. Boy does that make me feel good! These are well educated folks, way beyond my ken and they can still goof! My very occasional ignorance has been exonerated, hip, hip, hooray! Oh, alright, mine is more frequent, but they have more people to edit, me none, they have fail-safe systems that oops too… This is so wrong and really sad that I find such delight in their minute inaccuracy at least they have its direction correct, that would be more awful and we here in southwest Florida know how horrible that can be! And the direction accuracy of any storm is the most important part of forecasting! Although, to be fair, no one has that much control of storms decisions… and we all know there is no one to blame when they take a quick right, but even so many years later we sure wish some one could figure it out! Interesting enough that Berry, I mean Barry will probably be turning back into a tropical depression again, thankfully as it goes across land and then its name status is removed anyway! Just called a ‘tropical depression’, but then we move on to the next ‘C’, Chantal, named storm and this will be just another blip in that time space continuum that I captured for your viewing. Sounds cool, hmm? Me reaching into the sky for that? Moving on… The powers that be, The American Medical Association have determined that ‘Obesity’ is a disease! Just what I needed was another one of those, diseases! Kidding, sadly, I knew that; it kills more people today than smoking with one out of three people being obese in the USA! Then why did I quit smoking on July 11 2006! And yes, my 7th anniversary for that is coming up next month and sure I am proud… and will not start again, until I turn eighty, since neither of my parents lived to that age and I will feel safe. Although, by then, they will be either fifty dollars a pack or only sold on the Black Market, who knows who cares why that is more than a decade away! By then I will be slim again, since I am still going to the gym/ rehab and have now incorporated another piece of equipment into my routine that I did ten reps each, in two directions, today! It is that thing you pull down with your hands, no weights yet, just the system itself, but I did it! Now I do 15 minutes on the arm cycle both directions, and 100 reps, fifty break fifty, on the total gym and now this too, yeah! Two days so far this week and Friday is coming up and as long as I have no problems in the interim I will be there! Now for the curious and interpreters of film or PICS in this case I think that the picture looks as if a giant snake is over by our birdbath, you tell me what you think? Hubby doesn’t think so, but I am the one with imagination… ha! On that note of WHAT???? Allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Inspiration for blogs comes from...YOU!

And today’s new Facebook friends are many and mostly from the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand as well as one even from exotic North Carolina! Kidding, a USA state, in my own backyard.

Something that appears to be a wonderful thing initially is … that we are all friendly to one another. It takes time to find things that you do have in common or not that long, as with my one newbie friend… the commonality of the love of dogs that brought us to a conversation for a bit…

Having friends in different hemispheres can at times be an issue, due to of course the time differences… New Zealand and Australia are anywhere from about sixteen hours ahead or more difference in time from here in the US EST, and even my friends in California are three hours earlier than us here in Florida, while the UK is about six hours ahead only. It all can be rather confusing, not to mention things like Celsius versus Fahrenheit without a converter by my side I can only estimate, example my new Facebook friend in the UK's temp was 20 degrees Celsius today, approximately 68 degrees Fahrenheit, I think and I told him it was brr there and I was right, since we had 88 degrees Fahrenheit and it was downright toasty here, except of course inside where it's air-conditioned and of course where I was! I suppose he too was indoors but he never said. And forget centimeters they tried teaching them to us in our fifth grade class back in 1960, but it failed terribly; we were all too old or too far gone by the age of ten!

The fact that my wanting to open my acceptance to many people when I became a member quite a few years ago with the thought to meet people from all over the world to chat with and learn about and it sort of did work…

But sadly we cannot get together, due to me, not them.

When I was a college student and got to go to Europe and meet people from all over the world then I found them fascinating and willing to be kind and friendly and you know something not that much different from me or anyone here; it’s geography that is different, not people!  

And so when the option on here arrived I went ahead and started to say ‘yes’ to the ones who asked to friend me and for me to seek them out too and in most all cases in with my more than 2,400 friends to date they have been enchanting and interesting and not locked into the theory that you gotta be only the same as me, oh no… they have many dissimilarities, but also many similarities as well or not at all, but who cares, really?

After all, we are all human beings for one, a silly one, but one and we all are on Facebook to either further a business endeavor by networking, meet new people or to just have someone to talk to and that might be a difference, but not too.

In all the people I have met over these years only a few have really pushed me to using my eject buttons, but only fair, since I probably did cause many to do that too to me, ha!

But when I was taught how not to allow anyone post on my timeline for privacy reasons, when they would write things I found objectionable, what a relief that became! Mostly, for me anyway is any religious zealots postings or too sexy/trashy things, foul language too, rub's me the wrong way… okay so I am a heathen prude, huh?

Odd, but true and proud of it…!

Oops I can hear those unfriend buttons registering in cyberspace!

Kidding again, I do hope, really!

Any-who, in closing this has been a roller coaster ride these last few years and all in all it has gotten my heart beat going rather fast, or nearly took my breath away, or made me laugh hysterically or cry uncontrollably or cheer for the underdog, or boo the bad guy or gal and this ride hopefully won’t be over for years to come…! So I just want to welcome those newbies of mine and thank the ones that remain in spite of me… remember one thing, when life gets tough, just smile, it fools the brain or whatever works!

On that note of much ado about you, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

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

PS I did hear back from the pain clinic and the PA, physician’s assistant, John said that since we, meaning me in my past, have already tried everything and it didn’t work or was only temporary, or I was allergic to it or nearly died from it, that he would keep my referral and if he came up with any other ideas he would call me… so I guess I am on my own…oh well, not really. I have Hubby, and number one son, and all of you too, at least to smile?

People who are collectors and others who find things they just plain like so they become...

Hoarders! Who are people that are collectors, savers, accumulators, squirrel-ers, magpies, stash-ers, and most recently considered mentally ill according to how much and how severe the hobby turns into?

There is definitely a fine line. Below is the hoarding definition:

“By Mayo Clinic staff

Hoarding is the excessive collection of items, along with the inability to discard them. Hoarding often creates such cramped living conditions that homes may be filled to capacity, with only narrow pathways winding through stacks of clutter. Some people also collect animals, keeping dozens or hundreds of pets often in unsanitary conditions.
Hoarding, also called compulsive hoarding and compulsive hoarding syndrome, may be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). But many people who hoard don't have other OCD-related symptoms.
People who hoard often don't see it as a problem, making treatment challenging. But intensive treatment can help people who hoard understand their compulsions and live safer, more enjoyable lives.”

• “Symptoms:
• Cluttered living spaces
• Inability to discard items
• Keeping stacks of newspapers, magazines or junk mail
• Moving items from one pile to another, without discarding anything
• Acquiring unneeded or seemingly useless items, including trash or napkins from a restaurant
• Difficulty managing daily activities, including procrastination and trouble making decisions
• Difficulty organizing items
• Shame or embarrassment
• Excessive attachment to possessions, including discomfort letting others touch or borrow possessions
• Limited or no social interactions”

Thanks to and for more info goto: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hoarding/DS00966

The only reason I investigated this issue is that my mother-in-law was a big saver, no one could walk into her basement and she had to know you a real long time before you could even see it and her two car garage could not fit even one car in it and now she is in a nursing home with severe dementia at ninety-two and I just wonder if being that way your whole life could mean that can cause it or play a role in later life, dementia? Hers began with people giving her things and her elderly friends passing away and their families giving things to her, and even her own parents things, large items like furniture etc…but she also would shop for items on sale and collect them and never wear them or use them and have many items in her closet with the tags still on, as well as food, can goods, on sale, coupons items, two for one things etc. And never using them and storing them in her basement pantry with dates from decades ago! Her upstairs looked fine except the rooms that weren’t being used, her adult children’s bedrooms after they moved out and were stuffed with things she hadn’t gotten to… even paper things that were mailed to her would pile up and placed on the stairs to the attic! Some how she did keep up with her bills in spite of her odd filing method and her being a bank teller for over twenty-years!

She also had the distinct issue of checking several times before leaving the house to make sure again and again that everything was turned off electric wise and that all the doors were locked over and over again… and ten years ago our nephew was diagnosed with the same OCD and so I wonder, ya know?

Fortunately, our sons have not shown any signs of that behavior, thankfully.

What brought this whole thing up is a Facebook friend who keeps making purchases for future donations to charity, she has a great eye being a grad of an excellent art school, but it concerned me and so I blatantly asked, “Do you have a shop to sell all your collections?” And no she doesn't.

She goes to Flea Markets and Goodwill and the Salvation Army etc. and admitted to having a full basement, whoa, that set me off!

I told her to open a shop and sell her stuff and donate the monies to all those pet associations she helps by being a poster of the cute babies needing homes, pets people, pet babies, some are adult pets too, got that?

When someone tells me they have a full anything when they live in a small but adequate home, like I consider ours… it’s time to purge friends!

Sure I too have closets that need a once over now and then and a desk and a file but really not anything severe or considered a mental disorder.

It’s been easy over these last several years when things are destroyed things don’t mean as much as one might think, people do!

Sounds corny to some, but realistic to many who, let’s just say in Moore OK and places like hurricane ravaged areas as in Sandy, as our own home here was destroyed back in 2004!

My point is that things that enter our home must find a place in our heart or realistically where they will be put before they succumb to our cottage lifestyle.

Donations are wonderful, but having an actual time frame to do that in is always a good way to be and cataloging as if a store in that basement wouldn’t hurt either and no one should ever have a fire hazard or damage possibly by flooding beneath their roof and so always err on that thought and minimize or know to whom you are going to give that loving jester to, just a thought…mettle-ing momma here, but with love and concern too…

On that way too long elaborate note, allow me to be the first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

PS Hubby, has shown some symptoms of saving over the years, but nowhere near as severe as dear ole mom, thankfully! PSS My parents saved nothing! So I'm good, I hope! Although, I do like to save containers from take out food for leftovers.

A retraction is due for that Facebook friend vaguely mentioned, what she actually said is that she has a full basement to me and I misinterpreted it in her saying that her basement was full. She actually meant that it is the full length of her home and I do apologize for the misunderstanding, but since she has unfriended me... OOPS! Not the first time this has happened and won't be the last sadly, but what a shame, just the same.

Making lemons into lemonade?

 

Aside from actually doing it,(get your minds out of the gutter) since this season it does look as if we will have a bumper crop of our Ponderosa lemons that is… but I digress…

Perhaps, I should have entitled tonight’s blog offering, “The Best Laid Plans of Men… and in my case a WOMAN”

The concept of going to our ‘usual’ ‘if all else fails’ place, The Cultural Center for lunch was an annoying flop today, of all days…Father’s Day.

You see, by the time we arrived at 12:45 P.M. the ad said they were serving from 11-2, they were out of choices of chicken parts; all that was left was wings… now ordinarily that would be wonderful, but not at that price and they didn’t really have enough for an adult serving!

The ribs smelled amazing but when lifted up for the person in front of us Hubby thought they did not look as tender as he would like to chomp on with that amazing fairly new smile of his. And to top things off the couple behind us seemed as if they were in a hurry, they offered to help move us along and kept bumping into us! They were about ten or twenty years older than us and didn’t look like they had other stops on their today’s itinerary although they were dressed as if they had just came from church; a logical conclusion, it is Sunday, after all.  And so we decided while still in line to leave and go to the Olympia Restaurant where they never have disappointed us. I suppose I might have made my suggestion as loud as a stage whisper and for that I am truly, truly sorry, but we did move quite fast after that although the man in front of us appeared to leave his walker behind him for us to bump into, which to someone like me who has used one proficiently, I might add, that it does not work like that, ha! Methinks he might have been another stealer of handicap parking spaces that is the man who was in front of us…but who knows… a mean assumption from me!

And we all remember what assuming means, correct? Making an ass of you and me, Geez, I am getting over that cringe factor now that I am finally getting older, Halleluiah? Who would have thunk it and that according to spell check I spelled ‘Halleluiah’ right the first time!? Another HALLELUIAH is in order and there it is. It is an Old Testament word and so feel very comfortable saying it…HA!

Moving on, or back on topic…

And so we arrived at Olympia Restaurant, a Greek restaurant, and Hubby orders an open faced turkey sandwich with mashed potatoes, extra gravy and a small house salad with Ranch dressing, coffee without cream, and I order their Spanakopita, spinach pie with feta and a nice Greek salad, iced tea unsweetened with extra lemons.

All was delish, and although it was a bit more, price wise, we did enjoy it; and after we took a ride to see if anything was going on… but the outdoor thermometer built into the car stated it was 95 degrees Fahrenheit outside and so we went home to the comfort of our air-conditioning and relaxed. TA DA!

The day was not so terrible when all was said and done and Hubby seemed quite content with the outcome and isn’t that really all that any of us want?

On that note of much noteworthiness, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and kindly ask all of you to count those blessings and share all the overages with you know who and we will too!

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

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all who celebrate it; BIG SMILE HERE!

Having very little responsibility...

Can create havoc, relaxing, also can make you too lax or downright have you feeling that many of your medical problems are gaining on you and cause you to be thankful that no one else depends on you anymore, but when you felt well you were happy about that reliance and truly, truly grateful for.

Yep, today was another Saturday that was not at all what I would like to call good that is medically speaking.

I, for all anyone’s possible thinking that I had gotten a decent night’s sleep, in the respect of sleeping from after one A.M. to nearly eight A.M, a decent six and half maybe seven hours.

And even so, my head, eyes, neck and back as well as my left hand did not act that way.

They each misbehaved in their own distinct way.

Taking the head first, even that sounds odd, anyway, pressure and pain cracking down on me, and my eyes, especially my left one, blurry and flashes of light, my neck’s agony, and my left hand dropping more things than usual, hot soup and the remote to the TV, not to mention all those electrical fingertip trickles of annoyance! My left hand has been definitely causing more difficulties at the gym, on the arm cycle, especially when I reverse the motion, it constantly slips off, and I wish I knew what that means?

And that has been happening since the beginning with lefty hand that is. Damn!

I just had a relapse the end of April and was on IV steroids then, it has got to be too soon for another; in less than two months?

I did hear from number one son yesterday and sadly he will not be here for Father’s Day due to him being sick with an infection that he thinks he caught from a couple of children that were visiting at his place of work. He was running a fever and his ear was red, enough for his doctor to put him on 500 MG. of Amoxicillin three times a day for a ten day dosage. I told him we understood and hoped for his recovery very soon! I called him back this morning and he was doing better; he’s been on them since Tuesday.

Consequently, I only told him good news about going back to the gym yesterday and left it at that. I wasn’t dishonest, in reality, at that time; I wasn’t feeling as bad as I became later in the day…

He’s no baby, at forty-one, and we have always been honest with each other, at least I would like to think so.

If I feel better, and I will try hard to (although it's not like I don't regularly try, but it doesn't always work), Hubby and I will go out tomorrow to the Cultural Center where they are having a reasonably priced Father’s Day lunch/dinner, 11-2P.M. available, that I know he will enjoy, a choice of barbecued ribs or barbecued chicken is on the menu for $9.95 complete with sides, children’s lunch for just $5; and then a wandering around the place.

We are in our summer heat and indoor venues are the best with air-conditioning, a given here in Florida. High eighties or low nineties are most of the days for now on and many like tomorrow with afternoon showers and that is how we get cooled off temp wise. Or jump in your pool or the stream or ocean or gulf or shower, you get the idea…

On that note of… gosh, let’s just say that it is what it is… allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and kindly ask you to count all your blessings and share all your overages with you know who and we will too!

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