The BIG holiday weekend is upon us!

This is one of those BIG three day holiday weekends, and in the case of us here in the United States of America, it is called Labor Day Weekend.

Now even that name is a misnomer, how might one have a ‘day’ that is also a ‘weekend’, one might ask?

Not me, since I have always known that this was called Labor Day Weekend at least since I was a small child anxiously looking forward to my first day of school, which in New Jersey always started the day after the holiday ended, on Tuesday!

“Observed on the first Monday in September, Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894. Labor Day also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events.”

Thanks to: http://www.history.com/topics/labor-day

Ending our long summer, in those days to us they were three months long…and just before it was time to go back meant new school clothes and notebooks and pencil holders and gosh everything that was needed had to be brand new, because the school year was brand new too!

Although…ramp up thirty plus years later from my first day of school and our children’s first day of school in FLORIDA, in 1986 when we moved to the other coast to Ormond Beach, on August 19^th we felt the urge to get here as soon as possible due to being misinformed that they would be starting school in August!

Ridiculous!

And for that one year, oddly enough, they too started the day after Labor Day, but that was the last time that happened to our then ten and fourteen year old sons.

For after that first year, when it appeared that they waited for us to settle in, we closed on that first house in less than a week, we had to look for a home since we hadn’t before we moved down here looked and so it was a bit of a rush anyway…but from that year after the boys were to start every year in the middle of August, but all schools are air-conditioned here and that allowed for them to get out in May, which they both liked. Even though it was still the same one hundred and eighty days that all United States schools require, odd how August to May sounds psychologically different than September to June?

Who knows why that is?

You see, we were on a rather odd adventure when we moved from New Jersey; we had sold everything, our big five bedroom bi-level and our underground sprinkle business and even most all of our furniture, we were due for new anyway…and so we had, us, Hubby and I and the boys, a dog, a cat and a cockatiel as well as a box turtle, and surprise our idea of renting a place to take our time to decide exactly what we wanted to do… was expedited due to no one wanting to rent to us with our children and our animal menagerie!

We knew the area well, since we had been to Ormond Beach many times before on vacation via our trips to Disney World with our boys and knew they had excellent schools that were not unlike the ones we left in NJ, with 80% of the taxes going towards the betterment of the schools…taxes were higher than many other counties in Florida, but a bit lower than ours were in NJ… and worth that in our opinion and so we sold everything and made the journey! My last of parents had passed away and that is why I finally agreed to leave NJ, we had been very close.

Hubby, if he had, had his way we would have been here ten years sooner, but I wouldn’t leave my parents.

Anyway, I also had my father’s estate to contend with too, being the executrix, but my best friend’s husband was our family attorney and I left much to this trusted friend, which worked out just fine… we did much by overnight mailings and even electronically through the bank there in Ormond Beach, at that time Barnett.

And so buying a home in record time was amazing to us, for when you live in NJ closings take three months, minimum, and that is why we were concerned, but not that much… with title insurance, no lawyers involved, and acquiring what are called abstracts, the history of the home, and so we moved in seven days after we arrived. Funny thing is I did try registering the boys for school while we were staying in an efficiency motel and the schools gave me a hard time and wanted Hubby there… as if they were not my children too! Ah the south… not that happy to be here then. I argued, but it got me nowhere and Hubby showed up to prove they are OUR sons too, from both parents! I pitied the single parent…

Inoculations were another thing, we had all their school transcripts and proof of up to date inoculations, I thought, but we were told more were required and so we went and did that too!

Ah, memories the boys had two different schools due to their ages one got the bus, our number one son since his school was further away, but little guy had two choices either to be driven or to ride his bike since it was less than the required distance. I drove him for quite some time, but eventually he rode his bike, due us having our restaurant.

I walked from kindergarten through my senior year of high school, well really only until I could afford my car that spring, due to both towns I lived in having the requirement that you must live more than two miles away to take the bus, and Hubby’s did too, walked that is! And we were fine.

Oh so Labor Day Weekend oddly is called that because it is the unofficial end of summer vacation for children I suspect and it helps the economy to have another one to sell, hotel/motel rooms, gas, plane fares, beach time, water sport rentals, etc… and to remember, why on Monday no one except the tourist industry and police and all other emergency people and hospitals etc have to work, ha!

Retail stores and car and all large and small appliance centers and you name it have their sales!

Now you tell me if everyone is actually working the holiday, why bother? LOL!

We retirees just consider it another day…but here in PARADISE!

On that note of have a good one however you choose to spend it, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and to 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!

Talking to or at people?

Here we go again…

There was a time that I really knew what a conversation was, construction-wise, one person talks, then another and it sort of goes back and forth like a ping pong or tennis match. How about that seventeen year old gal winning that game…? I digress…

But somehow between studying management, motherhood and teaching classes I lost the art.

What I have to say cannot always be more important than what others have to say or need to tell me about this or that, can it?

Truly, I just want them to know that I know too.

And that at times they are telling me what I knew before they opened their mouths, ya know?

Why is that?

Could I be psychic or just plain rude?

Please don’t say the latter, for I really do know at times what someone might say in any given situation… that is why when I wrote my novellas or any fiction at all, it was so realistic and that was my strongest part of my whole writing ability…
dialogue.

I suppose it could be that I am just really weird… but being weird can mean that you are different/unique, said in a nice polite way, true, and that ain’t that bad, really, lonely, but not bad.

When I first came to the south, that is Florida, as a resident, not a tourist and I would talk to other, ‘residents’, some natives and some from other parts of this southern hemisphere of our United States of America… with interesting more southern expressions such as, ‘Bless your heart’, for a long time I thought well isn’t that just too sweet of them, always another woman, usually a bit older than myself, but on occasion a woman younger that would chime in saying that after my soliloquy was done…

Any-who, being from New Jersey and thinking I was way too worldly, after all with all my travels and just the fact being a north-easterner makes one think they are somehow superior, education, and access to cultural things like museums and live theater and real big cities like NYC and Philly etc…living between the two.

It was so interesting for me to learn that, ‘Bless your heart’ was actually code for you stupid sad gal, or some such thing…!

Not to say that some people don’t use that term of nicety as a calming affect on most of us ‘city bumpkins’ with highfalutin ideas and not even realizing that we were had, we were being put down, how southern of them, hmm, too polite?

Now if I go off on my talking at you tangents and someone says that to me, I smile and leave…but you really can’t blame them or me…sure you can, me that is, but it is too far gone, my ways, that is… and I am way too set in that way…

Hubby even used to get upset when I finished his sentences, until he realized by watching some TV shows about long term relationships saying how that is the ultimate form of intimacy, anticipating each others thoughts and needs… Gosh, we have known each other since August 31^st of 1967, when we met at work at Ohrbach’s, but didn’t start dating until March 16^th of 1968 and that’s a long, long, time! We have been married since February 14th of 1971; and so why not know what’s what?

I do believe most of my knowledge of human behavior could be attributed to observation as well as a few years of taking psychology too, but who knows… there is so much that I cannot explain that I wish I could…and I am still baffled by, like why I feel the need to tell everyone everything, oh that’s not right, since I did explain above my thought-out reasoning, I suppose I mean why people run from me, oh I do know that too! I am a terror! LOL!

Sure I turn people off and don’t let them get a word in edgewise, but you know something?

I am not alone!

Geez, there has to be more than just me out there…perhaps the X-Files knows where more of my kind exist?

Kidding or not!

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 your overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Sabotaging ourselves at times...

All the hullabaloo about the water releases into the Caloosehatchee River from Lake Okeechobee forty plus miles south from our home is causing the water to turn brown and harming the estuaries as well as the tourist business! (The reasoning is so those 35, 000 homes and people there would not get flooded from Lake O’s overflow, which is way beyond what its capacity has been due to all this rain…Sure the Army Corps of Engineers should step in and build another dike to shore up the waters, but the funding fell down on the job… oh yeah, it was a go, but as you would have it the federal government has not done what they should about the situation. Where have I heard this before?)

An alligator was even seen in the Gulf of Mexico near the shoreline at the beach in Fort Myers, ordinarily unheard of!

You see, they are mostly fresh water not salt water reptiles, although, we have had a few down our saltwater canal here in Port Charlotte, but not recently, without any merging of fresh and salt water here.

Our Governor Scott came down to the area to tell the people south of us that he is authorizing 90 million bucks to make a two and half mile bridge over towards the center southern part of the state, and that will have the future waters, re-directed, going out to the Everglades where the water will be filtered naturally and our southwest friends will not have the brown muddy scary waters harming their local waters or tourist industry!

Hip, hip, hooray!

But sadly, the hitch is, it will take three years to build this project… oh well… isn’t that always the way?

Bureaucracy at its finest!

Meanwhile due to all the publicity locally and probably nationally that we, Florida, appears to get negatively, our number one industry, tourist, is taking another nasty hit!

Why couldn’t we keep this one little dirty secret to ourselves, hmm?

I think sometimes that is why we have all these issues, telling people what’s going on down here.

So many other states practice the state of mum-ness or hush, hush-ness!

Even when the tourists arrive the news covers their expressions of distaste.

One even thought that we had another oil spill!

DEAR PEOPLE, LISTEN UP! THAT OIL SPILL OF 2010, NEVER CAME DOWN THIS FAR, BUT THE MEDIA FORGOT TO CLARIFY THAT AND PEOPLE ASSUMED THAT IT HAD AND AGAIN THE TOURISTS STAYED AWAY!

Our Gulf coast has taken many hits in these last few years other than natural disasters, and that is why I truly believe when that woman said that the water looked as if it was another oil spill someone should have said right away, no it was a chocolate spill and we know how much you love chocolate! Now, who doesn’t, really!?

She would have spread the word and the tourist industry would have been back on track…problem solved.

Crazy as it sounds; the water is perfectly safe to swim in and has been tested. Sure there are algae blooms down canals, south of here, not here, but the rain and the heat can cause them too, why we have even had them in our back yard freshwater fish pond and our fish are fine! The usual cause is runoff from fertilizers and such…sounds bad, but here we are not allowed to use high nitrogen fertilizers during rainy season, June 1^st- thru- November 30^th, every year, you would think they too had the same rules, if you live on the water you must respect the law! See not so terrible, really!?

Moving on…

Port Charlotte Florida’s homes have gone up in value by 40% for some reason!

More so than any other county in our state!

And the sales of homes here have gone up too!

Due to no more overstocked items, the glut has diminished and demand has gone way up for the lower quantities of choices...

The only thing is… when the value goes up, so must the taxes…Ben Franklin's quote "but in the world nothing can be said to be certain except death and taxes.” How prophetic of the man.  

Finally…

Today is a very important day, it was fifty years ago today that a great human being gave our country the hope to make significant changes in how we get along with one another, all people, the honorable Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with his historic, I have a dream speech and here it is: http://www.archives.gov/press/exhibits/dream-speech.pdf

It is six pages long, but worth the read… I was thirteen when he originally spoke those words and probably not as interested as I should have been, but over the years you grow and you learn and greatness has a way of shinning through when truth, along with understanding prevails.

Maturity resounds when one takes the knowing of others trials and tribulations can make us all stand up and take notice… I think that two years later is when I did finally did get it when my parents and I went on the two month trek to see our fine country and every major city we stayed in or passed through had race riots going on after we had left…talk about getting that light bulb to go off I do believe that in 1965 was when I finally started to get why this hatred of people had to stop the emotion in me became volatile too, but in a positive way… and of course when our sons were small and watched Sesame Street and they too back in the 1970’s talked about how people were like flowers all of us in different colors and shapes and sizes and we're all beautiful in our own way!

On that note of my feelings of this day and other none of my business nosiness sticking it, where it don’t belong, 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!

Bare hand and cast iron pan without a potholder is not a good combo!

Do any of you also have Aloe plants growing in your backyard?

When you make a stupid knucklehead move like I did, than you should!

Since here I sit with my left thumb holding onto a decent size chunk of some that that Hubby kindly ran out to get one from our yard to aide in relieving my writhing in agony! I am therefore writing with one hand tonight, not an easy task/accomplishment!

To be fair I told Hubby to put the cast-iron pan in the oven to finish up our dinner in a four hundred degree oven for approximately fifteen more minutes. Hubby in his all non-Kosher Catholic glory had us, his Jewish gal and himself both enjoying pork chops for years and years and tonight he decided to bread them with egg and Panko (check it out if you don’t already use it), our go-to breading decision for the healthier minded concept for doing this sort of thing; that is when we don’t just sauté them in lime juice and olive oil with a dash of garlic and dill…

Any-who, I asked Hubby if he had seasoned the Panko, and he said no, so I thought once the chops were done that I would make a nice sauce from the drippings along with white wine, lime juice, dill and a bit of garlic powder, smidge of butter and thickened with a sprinkle of all purpose flour.

Hubby removed the pan from the oven using the oven mitt and put it atop the stove burner; he instinctively put the mitt back in our basket used for that, and after the two chops were removed to a plate…What was I thinking; it was clear that I was NOT thinking at all, since I grabbed the handle to pour my separately prepared concoction into the pan!

The sensation of pain was instantaneous and for someone like me who is used to pain daily this was no fun! On a chart of 1-10, one being a minute tingle and ten being through the roof ouching; I do believe this fell between an eight and a nine!

But I am tough and have been burned stupidly before… a pack of matches in my hand and a nasty wind coming up from no where!

That time I stuck my blistering hand in a glass bowl brimming with ice water and cubes, oddly enough it too was my left, since I am right handed and that stuck with me all these years and that was back around 1975, if I recall.

I was walking ‘number one son’ to his Montessori school in a private home in the neighborhood and foolishly tried to light a cigarette with a cold wind at my back, damn that was dumb! But then I was young, now I am just foolish, an old fool.

There were probably more times over the years that it happened, but not that severely. PS when I took my hand out of the ice water the pain was much, much worse and so I opted to keep it in. Now we know that was not the best way to treat it, but somehow it healed without scars, wild! And right now my left hand is allowing me to use it again too tonight; the thumb was the worst and still is a bit tingly, but not too bad now. Anyway, this was not as severe just a reddening of the skin, no blisters.

Perspective, at that time, that was the worse pain I had ever felt, except for labor pains, of course.

Thinking is an important thing to do especially whenever cooking which I used to love to do and it was always quite rewarding and enjoyed by all who tasted what I made… another thing I miss doing without second thoughts…

Moving on…

Today I had a very nice experience with a friend/ mommy from my very long ago past… contacted me!

When we moved in to that first owned home of ours that we lived in for six years, our townhouse condo we had quite a lovely group of moms and kids to enjoy being in, with that commonality of learning from one another; we were five gals with approximately two kids each that would meet once a week so the children could play and we could chat at our teas…We did this for New Year’s Eve too; the children would sleep in the bedrooms upstairs as we partied downstairs at each others homes with Hubbies of course too, over the years, in walking distance from each others homes it was great! Sharing and enjoying being together with women that knew what you too were going through, even sharing the children’s clothes they had outgrown.

And so when this woman that I hadn’t seen or heard from since 1978 or there about, Gosh, it was wonderful!

We all moved out of our first homes to different larger homes and she had had another son, three in all, and they gave her six grand-babies, all quite adorable and dare I say they look like their grandma!

She and her husband were the opposite of us, she is an Italian Catholic and her husband is a Jew, and so we had another commonality.

We had gone through so much growing during those six years as anyone can well imagine… we had kept in touch for a while but the distance and lifestyles had changed considerably. Her husband was in the music industry in NYC, Arista records part of United Artists, one of his many groups he had under contract was Led Zeppelin, true, not name dropping and their kids would be wearing their rock group tees on any given day and we had been invited to concerts way back then, but never did go… Many of our neighbors went from domestic vehicles to Audis and BMWs etc. and bigger and better homes from our starter home neighborhood.

Her husband had been ill on and off all of his life; seriously, with many surgeries and so I was happy to hear that he is still hanging in there! Hard to bring up that topic, but we asked how everyone was doing and all our children faired very well with their choices of careers.

And in spite of my TMI spilling of trying to catch up with all her and my news for over thirty plus years, she was so gracious and said that she was always available to talk. She had taught as a Special Ed. teacher, first as a substitute and then retired last year. They still lived in the neighborhood that they had moved to in New Jersey, but also scaled down to a tinier home, twenty years ago, due to her husband’s ills.

She spends a lot of her time helping out with her sons’ children, but I did notice she had gotten to Italy with some lovely pics of the region; two of her sons live nearby her, and one is a state away. Her two eldest were on either side in age as my number one and our younger son and her younger one were a year apart too!

All in all it made for a nice day!

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

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

Storm coming in and so I will try to write fast...

It is not quite six P.M. and yet it is extremely dark out already due to clouds, rain and wind coming in; as shown from my back window... OOPS; It's HERE!

 This is our afternoon/nightly event when it's August in Southwest Florida, but fortunately it doesn't last that long, although the rain has been mounting in accumulations... as much as two to three inches daily...
And so areas south of us are flooding, but so far not us!
To me and most people this is much better than any hurricanes, thankfully, so far so good in that arena and the flooding is not that devastating, only a few streets and yards, but not into homes only a couple of inches deep.

 

We, after being here in this state of Florida now for twenty-seven years have a bit of experience with these things. The best part is when the rain comes in and after when the rainbows appear.... and the ninety degree temps go down to the seventies! Enjoy this natural beauty... I did use my 'poetic licensing' and found this particular beauty from Orlando, just up the road a piece, about three hours north and center of this state of Florida still here! But to be fair it does resemble our backyard pond...




 

 On that very high note 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!

"Sure, you have duties, but what about your duties to yourself?"

If it’s Sunday it could be Chinese dinner night, bazinga!

Nah we aren’t that rigid with when we eat what.

But it was.

That is Chinese dinner night and the title was oddly enough my first fortune that I opened.

Odd due to last night’s blog sort of speaking to that concept…

Any-who, and my first because they gave us seven fortune cookies, due to Hubby mentioning that last time they forgot to give us any.

And the number seven means: “It is a lucky number in Chinese culture, because it sounds alike to the Chinese word 起 (Pinyin: qǐ) meaning arise, which means I love you.”

Thanks to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_in_Chinese_culture

“In Buddhist culture, it represents Buddha, Dharma and Bonze, so people toll the bell three times to worship Buddha and pray for the removal of calamities with 3 sticks of incense. Whilst no.7 implies holiness and mystery in Buddhism, it is lucky as well.”

Thanks to: http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/social_customs/lucky_number.htm

And so we have seven tonight!

I only ate half of one cookie, Hubby ate all the others, but I did open three of the seven fortunes and so these next two were mine as well, are you ready?

I can’t hear you! I will take your demure silence as a yes…

“The stars appear every night in the sky. All is well”

I knew that, but a bit harder to see with all these clouds lately.

Next one of mine too: “There is always another higher mountain.”

Now just when you think you have conquered all the others, sure, than along comes another, but when?

Here’s Hubby’s in no definitive order of opening, okay? Does it count? 

First:

“The problem of today will be buried by the sands of time”

I’ll go when I’m ready not a moment sooner, okay!

Next 2:

“Time and patience are called for, many surprises await you.”

You got that right…See, if you ‘await you’ whatever does that mean? Perhaps it meant the collective ‘you’, as in actually meaning us both?

Next 3:

“Trust your intuition. The universe is guiding your life.”

Well, that’s a good thing, I think.Going with your gut always works on the Millionaire Game Show.

Next 4:

“Traveling more often is important for your health.”

Okay, I see a more cost effective vehicle in his/our future!

We ordered from them for the first time in a while that is, China City, and Hubby now goes the little over two miles to pick it up due to saving the delivery charges and tip, which can add up. We have been customers of theirs since they opened a few years ago and it’s only the last few times that Hubby picked it up.

Moving on…

I am still drinking my green tea (and it goes well with our dinner choice), which is naturally decaffeinated and has been helping me get a handle on this Detox from the Gabapentin withdrawal.

You see, the one thing that has baffled me is that some days I am exhausted and other nights I have insomnia; sleeping way too much with naps and overnight time or sleep too little with no naps and no nights… I have got to get a handle on this issue. The good thing is by the time next Sunday rolls around I will no longer be taking Gabapentin and I will have diminished my use by few milligrams of my Baclofen too, hip, hip, hooray!

Yesterday, I got clocked by the door handle when I bent down to kiss Skipper goodnight, Hubby was coming in from the garage, which you go through our laundry room to get there and that is the door he opened when I bent down to kiss Skipper Hubby and you got that right he opened the door and got me firmly on the back of my head! An accident of course but it hurts just the same.

Now with my eye problems and Ataxia and other normal weird problems if you were  to test me for a concussion it would be futile, because all my daily symptoms are just like a person with a concussion with my Multiple Sclerosis! LOL!

Anyway, my cervical collar was back on and ice was employed as well all last night and part of this morning and until sitting here in this position at my PC I thought I was fine, but it is starting to 'OW!' me again and so instead I would like 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!

Who's on first?

In the respect when it comes to talking to people, perhaps that should be who starts the conversation first?

I believe either party has that right to call upon another person to start conversing.

Is there a protocol to it?

And when is it alright to let someone know that they went over the line?

Patronizing a person is never right, but when a person young enough to be your child tells you that they know that you are probably smart and I can see that you appear to be, but what are you doing with your life; what would you say to them? As I stared up at this young woman from my wheelchair with only one of my eyes actually seeing her and not even that clearly…

I almost started rattling off my resume! And foolishly I have posted it here, but it is in my about in my profile for all to see anyway…

“Over the thirty-two years I did work on and off I had been co-owner of three businesses, a wicker store in Toms River NJ, one restaurant in Ormond Beach FL and underground sprinkler business which was the second largest in NJ, plus I worked in promotion and advertising as well as being a district manager for an international environmentally safe products company, as a department and credit manager for Lord and Taylor’s in Ridgewood NJ, and a sales and floor manager for Ohrbachs in Paramus NJ. Not to mention nearly forty years on and off of working with non-profits as a volunteer. Almost any ill you can think of fund raising, as a board member, teaching classes, advocacy and co-president of support groups. Also with my husband with Boy Scouts when he was scouting coordinator for Ocean County NJ and assistant soccer coach and Fire Chief in NJ too. And if anyone was wondering I also had the privilege of visiting 40 US states and eight countries all before I married. And yes, I did study journalism while attending LIM and have also been published in the local newspaper with a by-line a few times, and a page in a local book. I had continued my venture into writing by also joining a writer's workshop and group and I must have forgotten my five murder mystery novellas that are always in need of heavy editing, The Misty Gable Mysteries. My blog was five years old on June 25. 2013!”

But restrained myself and just said that I am done. That should have been that I have done enough, my anger in life is tangible at times and not good for public consumption. I know ‘assuming’ comes to mind… Unfortunately I too have been guilty of that stupidity.

Or I should have said is that at this point in my life with being able to pay all my bills and having health insurance coverage and physicians to care for me as well as a loving husband who does most of the caring and so that I have the ability to do whatever I want to do or am able to do!

And that is not necessarily doing what others expect me to do!

Freedom of choice is a wonderful thing to have…and I do believe many of us try hard to earn it…and I was thrust into it, by not necessarily my own decision.

Stress less lives are hard to come by and even with all that I said many days do have a load of stress involved in them, due to physical trials or just dealing with life's daily  grind of things not always going how they should, but that is how life is! Life is good in spite of that!

I believe that without a wee bit of adversity to keep us on our toes, how would one know they were still alive?

It has a habit of getting the heart pumping.

Too smooth sailing gets boring too and who wants or needs that, really?

Assumptions are rare with people you just meet, especially when most don’t get you. I recall a time way back when in Key West when I had had a relapsing remitting experience although not yet diagnosed and we had a borrowed wheelchair back around 1996 or there about and went on vacation.

As Hubby pushed me around the area that we had been many times before that and after… People would talk to Hubby, but not to me, as if just being in a wheelchair meant you were mute and brain damaged, and in those days were before my enormous weight gain and my facial scars…so I was not a half bad looking wheel-chaired lady.

It was after that experience, quite a few years later in that writer’s workshop at the Cultural Center where I met my dear friend who passed away recently… She had us writing, weekly and one of my stories was about that strange to me experience, and I entitled it, “I’m still me”.

And aren’t we all just that when you get right down to it?

No matter why people see you differently inside we are who we have always been…can’t change us and people who think that they can are dismally disappointed.

Restraint is good I suspect, but I always think, these days what I coulda shoulda woulda said, sorry Judge Judy, not really, oh well!

I am just a wee bit slower with the comeback…

On that Alrighty now note of intent, 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!