Measles

• Four cases of measles have arrived in Florida, so now we too are in the loop of the fourteen states with cases. Our cases have not been told to us exactly where they are in our state, guess to keep the patients privacy, but we have been told they are not residents but visitors.
• But great news for us older folks…

“Preventing new infections

If you've already had measles, your body has built up its immune system to fight the infection, and you can't get measles again. Most people born or living in the United States before 1957 are immune to measles, simply because they've already had it.”

As per: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/measles/basics/prevention/con-20019675

But all others should become immunized.

Our sons being born in the 1970’s did have their inoculations and even up to their teens before high school, but those adults today in their late thirties and early forties need to get them again, and now with a very possible outbreak!

So tell them.

As they get older their immune systems change and boosters are a very good idea anyway.

The illness is much worse too, plus being a carrier and possibly infecting others is a horrible guilt trip to carry, so get it done please.

Moving on…

I have some bug but it is really odd since it comes and goes. Again I am running a low grade fever and have swollen glands and body aches; odd how this phantom ill appears and disappears.

Any-who, all I have been doing is taking Tylenol and throat lozenges, and eating those Clematines, mini oranges.

My appetite now is not decreased and I had a fine meal of our own barbecue chicken on our grill with baked potatoes and mixed vegetables, we always buy fresh or frozen and these were frozen but cooked, got that?

No sodium that way and picked and frozen at the peak of freshness; a least that’s what the brands say, this is generic, store brand i.e.

I have been drinking club soda all day, even more than usual; it has zero calories sugar or sodium, just fizzy water actually.

I prefer it to tap or bottled water.

My left gland on my throat is definitely a lump and it hurts when I touch it, so I am torn on whether or not to go to the doctor. This ghostly ill has been going on now for the last two weeks; what would you do?

With the flu rampant throughout the country and even though I had my flu shot back in September, with now being only 23% effective, going to a doctor’s office with all those contagions makes me think no, not a good idea.

I suppose if it were to get worse than I would go or perhaps to the hospital, nah!

Silly!

I am okay!

At least whatever I have is not fatal, just annoying.

And I was even well enough to go to the gym/rehab this morning and did my complete workout without any problems!

So I am good.

Tomorrow is my day off anyway.

Oddly enough I keep sneezing and sniffling too.

Maybe it’s just an old fashioned cold… but G-d knows I take enough vitamins!

Oh well… it’s so nice to be able to throw these comments out to all of you... without any preconceived notions about me (I hope) or me about you (for sure), ya know…

On that note of sure you do, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all 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!

Old Fashioned

Being of a generation who knew of such things as dial-up telephones, not push button and even some people with a communication system called a party-line. 

And no it was not conference calling; although it was not that dissimilar than that, now that I think about it, but still no.

People that you had no familial or friendship or even knew at all had the same line to use to communicate with the outer world and in order to use that line you would pick up the phone and listen to see if someone was on there before you could use it for your own personal use, got that? Some were sneaky and would just listen to other people’s conversations, how rude?

Oops now only the government does that. LOL! Okay it is probably true. Be careful with what you say…hmm?

We personally never had that type, a party-line, but my aunt and uncle did; I do believe it was a very good deal financially at the time.

Any-way, I just heard from my old neighbor up in NJ the one that was my neighbor in the townhouse condo community that we had all lived in back in the 1970's; yes, our first owned home from 1972- 78.
Anyway she mentioned the fact that making social arrangements with friends these days is complicated since no one wants to call they leave messages on the social network sites and it at times causes no meetings to occur since by the time you get them the meet time may have passed?

She, like me longs for the much simpler phone call, but did not mention if she has initiated this old fashioned concept with her gal pals up there. I have not, oddly enough.

Something similar happened to me like her incident just on Friday, but I was the culprit of the disconnect, although the other woman might be considered to be as well, with no fault of her own. Now I bet you’re really confused?

I had sent an email to this woman that we had become friendly with her and her husband at the gym/rehab and she had been ill and since we had been emailing back and forth I emailed her to see how she was doing.

And when I hadn't heard from her, she like me figured we would see each other at the gym/rehab, but I was absent for two days and she had been too...until Friday when we were able to face to face connect!

She told how she had been in quite a serious situation with her allergic reaction and ended up being hospitalized overnight needing epinephrine! Now she has to carry an epi pen. The mystery is they still do not know what caused her swelling.

Thankfully by Friday when I saw her she was looking pretty darn good again.

In this situation even if we had tried to call, perhaps it wouldn’t have helped anyway since they were not home?

So in this case texting or cell communication might have worked, but we don’t text and I do not know if she does, anyway we just have their home phone number like they have ours.

Being able to communicate has been an issue for thousands of years as we have been told in our school room classes of history of the world.

And just when we think we have made some headway, somehow, someway there might be a glitch, true?

Have we really made the world so small, but at times hard to get our personal voice across to?

We do have the ability to speak to people from all over the world whenever we can raise them away from wherever they might be busy with more urgent, professional or family matters and still have the ability to only speak to you when they feel like they want to, free will……..what a concept!

More food for thought… as they say the more things change the more they stay the same.

On that note of GEEZ I still believe I have something going on in this odd noggin of mine; although mixed up a bit, allow me to be the very first wish you all a very happy good night and ask all of 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!

The shed's complete!

The shelves were Number One's too and Hubby has even managed to start putting things inside of it!

That's my view of taking pics through the sun-room's door; most likely I wasn't dressed yet to go out.
My hands are being overworked by using this thingy and now petting our newest member, Gus; not to mention lifting him.
And he is not light, at three and half pounds heavier than Skipper; Gus is not at all the size of either a Havanese or Shih Tzu both are around thirteen pounds and shorter.
He was weighed in at the vet's office at eighteen and half pounds and this was after his stomach episode so he might be more.
When we received him he was seventeen point two pounds back on December 27.
The veterinarian when asked said that he was just right, in other words you can just feel his rib cage but they are not protruding and he does not have fat covering them.
Even the day that he was so ill he did the Bichon Blitz, which Skipper was fond of...
The behavior is peculiar to the breed and all inclusive to the Havanese as well and it is when they run in long circles as if on a race track, so I call their act or behavior greyhound racing!
On occasion many dogs do this several times a day inside and out. Fun to watch but sometimes frightening for fear they will hurt themselves, but thankfully Skipper never did and neither has Gus.

"The Bichon Buzz

The Bichon Buzz is one of the Bichon Frise's most popular characteristics. It is also commonly referred to as the Bichon Blitz.
These terms describe the sudden bursts of energy that a Bichon Frise will sometimes exhibit.
In fact, if you are caught off guard, you may just find yourself doubled over with laughter. Bichon blitzes are such fun!
If you would like to see one of these buzzes, scroll down to watch the video."

Goto this page to see the film: http://www.all-about-bichon-frises.com/bichon-buzz.html

And so Gus was behaving like himself even that day, and since the behavior is built into them I do believe he will never become overweight due to that being quite exhausting even just to watch! And as far as I know Shih Tzu's do not do it, and so I suppose his Havanese is stronger than the Shih Tzu portion of him?

Moving on...

 I persuaded Hubby to take a short break by going over to our Publix grocery store to purchase food, but of course.
Salmon was on sale, how I longed for that!
So I bought two fillets for us for two separate meals.
Oh yes I went in again all by my lonesome with a shopping cart and no walker once again, since it was going to be a full one.
Strawberries were also at a great price as well as Clementine's, and of course a few bananas.
I won't put you through the whole shopping list, but we do buy generic whenever we know the quality is the same as the name brand.
I forget to use coupons and this time Publix had sent a ten dollar off one for any purchases over fifty bucks.
It's a rare occasion when we spend less than that and today's was just under $125, and so I called Hubby in the car with Gus and asked him to bring our lovely surprise from our home away from home store... and he did, but the young fellow cashier had already rung us up and so the Customer Service desk gave us a ten dollar bill/money instead of a credit off the total, and that was fine and nice.
Now you know why we call it "our" Publix, and most do with theirs too.

On that note of a happy day, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all 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 go to the gym/rehab yesterday and accomplished all my machine reps without any decreases from being absent for two days, TA DA! 

Hands are hurting...

So tonight's blog is on hold till tomorrow but that will be tomorrow's blog...Oh I'm so confused!

Can Tylenol do that?
Kidding!
Just took two extra strength; waiting for them to kick in.


Moving on...

Funny how Mitt decided not to run after he spoke with Jeb...I'm just saying...food for thought.

Hubby is truly amazing!

Mind you this was day one with three and half walls completed of the 8'X 10' galvanized steel shed, pretty much all by himself, except my little wee bit of help and of course Gus's.

 Day two are the PICS #'s 2 thru 4, with the roof on, and with it pushed back against the fence in its position and floor ready to be installed...The doors too will be all tomorrow, of course!

The pine high boy that was bought for Number One Son's room when he was a teen and we had just moved to Florida; it has endured. Some cat scratches on top add to its distressed look, but this piece will be sanded and re-stained its golden oak color, which was used on all my solid wooden pieces bought from an unpainted furniture store way back then in Ormond Beach Florida. On oak it looks different than pine and on other woods as well... Minwax we have been using forever as DIY'ers since the early 1970's! Now they have wood putty that is stainable but it is also in a golden oak which will be used on the deeper ridges of animal's teething, even a corner was bit off the ice box end table but the wood had been puttied with only a paintable one not a stainable one, now it will be sanded down hardily or chipped completely off to start again, since I have decided to maintain the golden oak stain on them all and will not be painting them. That stainable putty will be used.

 One of two oak cabinet's, our younger son was given the other piece and we have no idea if he still has it, and yes I have not put my dishes in it yet, the items inside were mostly on the natural wicker etagere. As you see the fish hand painted hanger piece is resting on the bookcase and has yet to be installed in Hubby's bathroom, its door is just on the other side of the bookcase. Hubby is extremely busy, too busy for this yet.

Interestingly that after the hurricane when replacing the furniture that we had acquired over the years we chose to purchase expensive distressed pieces. Oh I suppose it was due to my reasoning of what would become of them in the end, ha! And in many ways that is true. Horrible true story: one of the many reasons I stopped smoking on July 11, 2006, besides my TIA and my parents and brother dying from strokes, actually my brother passed away after I had quit, but with my MS I drop things and that included my cigarette, yep on the dinette table! Well the burn mark is there to remind me, but also blends in with it being distressed; who knew...I suppose I did.
All my new stuff was ordered in the fall of 2004 and arrived by December of 2004 when our home was done and ready for us to move back in.
Any-who as we all know that matchy, matchy is not the right way to decorate anyway and so now we have more interesting items, or that should be once again! Rooms should have memories as well as functionality! And now they do.

On that note of make things work and doing it with love, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask all of 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!

My turn...

Not that I am trying to steal away Gus’s thunder but I too have been dealing with the yucks this morning and on and off all day as well as the sensation of extreme weakness.

My temperature is fairly normal to low once again.

Consequently, I did not go to the rehab for the second time this week.

Monday was due to Gus’s ills and Number One’s arrival and today was due to mine.

So this will be another shorty story.

Hubby has made considerable progress on the 8’X10’ shed that he picked up yesterday, he is nearly halfway done, almost all three sides are attached, and he felt that I had been of somewhat of a help.

He had asked me to hold together the corners; it was quite windy today and the wind tried to make the galvanized shed fly away and it was also chilly, upper seventies, brr!

Gus was also told he helped, so shall I feel like I did or not? LOL!

I guess this means weather permitting our car will be back in the garage before next week!

My tummy is much of my problem and in a way that is good because without the gym I am mostly having green tea and homemade chicken soup and some crackers too.

My symptoms are a bit like the flu when I had a fever, but it is gone, and I had the sneezing and sore throat but they are not that bad now. I have my 23% preventative flu shot back in September and so did Hubby, so either I am experiencing a mild case or something else. Either way just when I think it is one thing and I am about to call the doctor’s office for perhaps some Tamiflu I stop because I think this isn’t that or is it?

Any-who, tonight I had orange marmalade with low sugar on crackers with another cup of green tea, couldn’t hurt?

My oh so good chicken soup that tasted delish all the other times today and yesterday that I had some tasted funny to me now…how odd? And not a good sign… this ride might be going south…

On that note of oh well, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all 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!

Working but not realizing it...

Tangible evidence that you made a change to even something as simple as a room décor…

Sure the guys did all the heavy lifting yesterday but after they vacuumed the webs out on the patio I did the regular disinfecting and polishing, ya know? (Many items left our son’s home and ended up in his garage for a while.)

Arranging what goes where and what accessories might well improve the overall outlook of those new items in the home landscape, that’s moi’s job!

And one might be surprised on how placement of certain pops of color add to a feeling of a room, happy, drab or even a wee bit sad and every emotion one can think of that is why bringing it all together is just as important as choosing what is in there.

Some of the items need refinishing due to animals teething on or scratching on them and so even though they are in the place where they will be the process of sanding and refinishing will be in those places for the larger items but smaller ones will be taken into the garage to refinish and repair.

Hubby filled the holes of where I had a picture and decorative hand painted fish three hook hat/sweater holder purchased at one of the local art festivals years ago at Edison College now renamed Florida Southwestern and a hand painted in acrylics picture by a famous artist, Ray Stoy, who did the original  Fisherman’s Village in Punta Gorda Florida before Hurricane Charley had its way with it back in 2004, and I copied a more recent picture off of the net of the village and printed it out in miniature and coated it in a plastic cover to sit in the frame’s corner., and my straw hat that was perched on the pastel painted fish hangers, and my street find chair in painted white cane and striped seat of green, blue, yellow and white all relocated due to the Grandfather’s clock and their new locales are not cluttered, that is most definitely the trick!

That takes care of the foyer, oh, where did those items go?

Well, the chair believe it or not fits beautifully in the guest-room even with the larger pine high boy that was brought down by our son.

The picture is still in the foyer but now on my half hanging table under the floral metal mirror, it does fit well there and the pastel painted fish hanger with three hooks will be sent to Hubby’s bathroom that already has the fish theme with so many other wall items, but this is practical for that room to hang damp towels or clothes waiting to be put on etc. there. The pole lamp from the guest-room is now in the living room and the little marble based piano lamp is now on the white wicker étagère in there with the painted vase lamp that's echoing the new chair in there colors is on top of the pine high boy for a pop of color there!

That beautiful oak china closet is where we thought it would fit and it thankfully does where my old natural colored wicker étagère was with glass shelves but no real storage. The china closet has a closed bottom for storage and an upper portion with glass for display, and now I can put dishes only used occasionally in there and use their space in the kitchen cabinets for small appliances that were cluttering up my pantry! See shipshape!

I already started to put extra linens in the high boy’s bottom drawers with leaving plenty of room for the other drawers and shelves to be utilized by future guests, like our Number One Son etc. and whoever decides to visit.

Hubby bought the shed today at Home Depot an 8X10 metal one smaller than our other ones but just right to get our son’s items out of the garage so Hubby can get our car back in within the week I think. He already started putting parts together and it is his fifth one of this type. We had two in our backyard in good ole NJ and his Mom’s yard years ago and the one here before the hurricane.

With the six foot wood fence and it being up against it, it should be safer than the other that had just a chain link one at the time, if not it is all insured anyway plus we have been lucky these last ten years now nearly eleven with no more hurricanes hitting here.

So I did do some things too today.

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

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