The cooler WEATHER does continue but...

Can we really complain to the rest of the country?
Hubby says YES!
Why, you ask? Because this is not the rest of the country; this is F-L-O-R-I-D-A!
Forties at night and sixties during the day, it just aint right, ya know?
It is at least fifteen degrees below normal for this time of the year.

But there is hope at the end of this tunnel of chills and thrills, NOT!
Where was I?
Oh, yes H-O-P-E this weekend we should be seeing mid-seventies again…Halleluiah my friends, yep right here in River City, well not actually, but you know what I mean… W-A-R-M-T-H and that rhymes with, what does that rhyme with …cough?
Nah, warmth does not cause a cough it causes health and wealth because it means more tourists will spend their dough which rhymes with ho, no that should be hoe for the land will be swell and we all won’t go to hell…O, because we can sell all of our stuff, like homes and condos and furnishing and food in the dear sweet restaurants and our people will thrive with jobs abundant and on and on and on… you all know the way that goes…on and on and on again, oh peace and joy for all!

Now back to reality, yes the weather here does play a major part on our tourist industry, but that’s nothing new. Why after those two years of hurricanes you couldn’t give tickets away to most of the amusement parks without initiating a legit refund promise situation.
Fortunately that’s old news and part of our darker history, sorry I brought it up that was five and six years ago! Old wounds take time to heal though.

I was amazed and slightly shocked to see something that threw me, tourists on the news in bathing suits and in our sixty-three degree temperature Gulf water! What are they crazy?
That’s hypothermia water, isn’t it?
I guess when you pay for the trip down here you want to do whatever it takes to take advantage of the sunshine, which I must admit is back, and quite beautiful as it always is with our crisp blue skies, but I hope they all have great health insurance because I think what they are doing may be dangerous or injurious to their well-being.
It seems so long ago that we were once them as well… oh the days of non-residency, how truly sad. Now, at least we have the time and patience to wait the weather in-appropriates behavior out without concern of having to leave at any particular time restraints. We are fortunate to be here and watch it as it all comes back to where it should be sunny and so warm it literally knocks your socks off! And it does matter since its warm enough for that, and sandals, or barefoot or bathing suits or nothing at all if you so choose…LOL
The true unadulterated F-L-O-R-I-D-A, wait in that outfit …adults only please! LOL
Or and make sure it’s allowed wherever you go or you could be arrested!

Silliness is back folks and I will continue to try to maintain the standard, and I hope you enjoy…Good night to all and to count those blessings and we will too!

Freezing up!

Not the weather here… got you!
Nope, it was our computer as I tried to bring up the word program.
And now I am writing this in the ‘safe mode”.
I do think, hush, hush not too loudly please; it might hear me but I do think that we are nearing the end of its lifecycle.

Moving on… in the Mom concerns…her neighbor called and said that she had insisted that she couldn’t come down when on the date we had all agreed on; because she had a free luncheon she would be going to, huh? I hate to bully anyone but I said to her on the phone that we miss her and haven’t seen her in over two years and so she should come on down! And she is returning her hearing aids for the third time, and I said to her that I think you are doing that just because you want to have something to do, and she laughed, I got her number all right!
She did agree to speak to her kindly neighbor who would make all the reservations online for her, and if she doesn’t we will be very disappointed.

Any-who, she needs a little bit of a push since because she can’t see her daughter who tried putting her away also with her grandchildren, who by the way, are all in their twenties, the eldest nearly twenty-eight, by no means babies! Two out of the three were in cahoots with their Mom and Dad to do the dirty deed. Contrary to what Hubby’s sister says about her and her husband not being involved anymore and that she seethes around him! And that they are married only for dual properties and she has no desire to work or lose her home, and that is why she hasn’t divorced him! And she won’t let her kids leave and have lives of their own, because she refuses to live alone with him, crazy!

Anyway, we got Mom to promise once again to make arrangements with her neighbor’s help, and if she doesn’t we will be notified, exhausting!

Interestingly enough last night I received an email note from my cousin the retired teacher’s wife. It was pleasant and brief stating how apparently her hip surgery was not so successful since she is on heavy doses of pain medication. Geez and I thought that is why she was getting the surgery to fix the problem! I guess it’s time to look for a new doctor! I know I would by now, this is her third surgery!
This last one was nearly two months ago!
I was also informed that my cousin himself has taken care of my uncle’s significant other by putting her in an independent living situation, not unlike what we are trying to do for Hubby’s Mom down here too, if she ever does come down!
He also now has the home to resell since it is empty again, and he is preparing that too.
Not once were we asked how we were, but she did mention that they were sorry they missed our anniversary. It always amazes me how people you ask how they are go on and on but often forget to ask you! I do both, that is I ask and I also go on and on…so whose right, neither I suppose?
But they are not really interested or we would have heard from them sooner, since we had mentioned about Hubby’s Mom’s problems way before my Uncle had died.
Some believe that their problems are the only problems.
I have written emails to them sent cards etc. but this is the first I have heard from them in months, and that is why I am annoyed. And during that time we also had lots of things going on too, but I found the time in spite of that.
You know it’s not nice to say but I have a theory about people who don’t want children or pets and that theory is because they are too selfish to share, mind you it is only a theory, but unfortunately I have been proven right over and over again.That’s not to say that people who have kids and pets aren’t selfish too, because many are.

On that note of negativity I will say good night to all, and pray I don’t get struck by lightening… its not the rainy season here so it’s pretty safe that won’t happen, and I will suggest that you all count those blessings and we will too!

Meter me, meter you...

I have been getting wacko numbers on my glucose meter and so today we went into the pharmacy where we purchased it and had the pharmacist check it, and oddly enough it was right.

Hubby used the book and test strips following the directions at home and yet it was difficult to understand, now, we are not stupid people; we have both been to college and can read, but it was way too non-simplistic, and all I could think of is all those elderly people trying to figure it out and I said to myself whoa, how on earth could they know if theirs was working right?

The reason we went in is because I have been getting numbers like 230 at night two hours after dinner and 154 in the morning on a fasting stomach, and so I got concerned more so, because I do know those are not pre-diabetic…they are outright diabetic numbers or so I thought! But the pharmacist assured me that having a big meal the night before or even just one glass of wine can stay in your system overnight and cause such readings, he also said that the eye drops prednisolone 1%, that I am taking could also tamper with my numbers, but the eye doctor’s office said no…now you see why I am so confused!
You know people this is still very frustrating, and I don’t know where to go to get straightened out, really. Anyone with half a brain knows what undiagnosed diabetes can lead to. If you don’t remember, let me give you a quick refresher course, blindness, gangrene, heart attack, stroke, etc, not a pretty picture, for more information go to: www.diabetes.org/

Anywho, tomorrow, for hopefully peace of mind, I will call ask-a-nurse, and then perhaps that will set my mind at ease, because as we all know stress does not help any ailment! And believe me this is scary for me, a little too much knowledge and all that.

Well, now for the remainder of the evening I will think pleasant thoughts.

Update on Charlie, the thirty year old Cockateil: he’s spending hours at a time on the bottom of his cage sleeping, yep, that’s what he is doing since whenever I think he has taken his last breath and is done for, he looks over at me, and then he does something else rather odd… he climbs up the side of his cage to sit on his highest perch, and eats and drinks like nothing is wrong at all!Why he’s eating now…LOL amazing! We will keep you posted.

And on that interesting observation we will wish you all a good night and remind you all to count those blessings and we will too!

Another generation makes my heart sing!

To be more specific have any of you wondered about the renewal of the species?
And I am not talking about just plain sex, you naughties! But how else could it happen, and so that is a given.
I don’t mean just us human beings anyway but all of the living creatures on this planet?
This evening my heart has begun to sing since our habitat of the waterway has been renourished with the advent of our newest sentry of an Anhinga that arrived and posted himself on the dock post of our finger peer, nearly in the same position of his predecessor of his species that passed away a few weeks ago.

Perhaps you all remember we had called animal control for what at the time we thought was a dead Moscovy duck, but it had turned out to be an Anhinga, a unique water fowl, long necked, with a very large wing span and that they pose with those enormous wings out to let them dry from their fishing expeditions which they do by diving for their tasty morsels; they are very interesting to watch.
Sadly it had died but we were told it was more than likely of old age.

I know that it is supposed to make us all feel better when it is said like that?
If a person dies before age fifty we say that is too young, but after ninety we seem to have the tendency to say that they had a good long life.


Did you ever once notice the look you got after you may have said that to the loved one that you had said that to that they, their loved one, that they, ‘had a good long life’?
You might as well have been speaking to them about a twenty year old who was in a car wreck, because that ninety year old to them and that they loved so dearly, they still feel a monumental loss, so much so that you can see it on they’re faces or hear it in they’re voices, so watch out what you say. I know personally suffering from foot and mouth disease. Better to send a condolence note.

Babies to me, are our human replenishing of life, I know everyone thinks that way or did; times they are a changing.
To me that makes sense.
Enough already about matters of life and death!

I got some interesting feedback on my Valentine’s Day Blog from yesterday, very happily positive. Those two women who responded are both from the world of writing, one is a translator of books, my birthday twin cousin, and the other is my dear old friend, a retired college English professor, and so whatever I get back from them means a lot to me. But make sure you get me right on this I do enjoy hearing from each and everyone of you too!


And no, we did not go out to celebrate we ordered in and picked up at curbside, a dinner from one of those chains that serve everything from comfort food to healthy salads, and so we were both happy with our choices.


Good night to all and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Happy Valentine's Day!

By the time you all read this you have either had a very lovely and wonderful Valentine’s Day or not one you wish to discuss.
It all boils down to expectations and your history of how your acceptance is of the endless changes that occur as time marches on.

Having some surprises are very sweet, and the ability to be a realist when these holidays arise and their importance to you as an individual or of a pair, in a partnership with your significant other makes the main difference in how you perceive these occasions, which mostly last only ONE DAY.

Subjectively we all have our own somewhat reasonable or not so reasonable ideas of how the day should go, which notoriously can be the cause of disappointment.

Personally after forty two of them with the same man, and married for thirty-nine of them, my emotions have been known to fluctuate.
You see, today is also our wedding anniversary, as I indicated above, our thirty-ninth.
To many a milestone in many cultures in this day and age of a more than fifty per cent divorce rate, and miraculous by most standards.
To say that these years were smooth sailing would be a complete lie, and dishonesty is not something I do well.
As anybody knows anything worth having is worth the effort to work for it, right, and so that is what we do daily!
Sure we argue and complain, but as many might not realize when you marry you do not meld your brains together; you get to keep them separately with all those supposedly idealistic reasons why you first fell in love in the first place, and you get to keep those opinions of yours with them!
Of course logically this may all cause conflict, but never ever boredom.

Which brings me to how our anniversary Valentine’s Day went today, well… we decided that we will celebrate tomorrow since every year when we have tried to go out it is pure craziness, that is the waits at restaurants, and so we have finally decided to go out when it becomes a bit tamer day, like tomorrow; although the kids are off since it is President’s Day too! We will see what will be. Actually, when it comes right down to it, just being together is a celebration in itself, and for that we should rejoice.

And so to all you youngins out there just think when times get tough, always remember why you fell in love in the first place, and that you should always compromise, and for the men in the relationship… remember that she is always right! LOL
And yes, then it should last a lifetime, and of course don’t forget to laugh!

Good night to all and to all count those blessings and we will too!

How long do these things last anyway?

If I told you that I have been using a computer since 1982, would you believe me?
Well, I have been, our first one was a Commodore 64, and our ten and six year old sons had to show us how to use it.
Fortunately for them that they were in a school where they learned from kindergarten on how to use them and so when we first got our own they were old pros.

In those days, let’s see… that was twenty eight years ago. We still have been basically doing the same things with our use of the half a dozen or more ones that we have owned since.
Using them for writing in the word programs, and most recently for the last dozen years for emails, and internet research; but if you asked me how it all works I would definitely be at a lost for words.
And the length of time these things last is also rather baffling too.
In the old days we had one, an AST that seemed to have lasted nearly ten years, but now they say oh no, nothing lasts that long in technology.
Sometimes it seems that every six months or so there is something new coming out that according to all claims you would be ridiculous to live your life without it and if you did then it would not be the slightest fulfilled, oh no! Our latest one is already five years old and probably on its last legs, which is if it had legs.

The one advantage we have now that we didn’t have all those years ago is that we don’t have those little voices, of our sons, in the background telling us we just gotta have it!
Most days I do miss those little voices, but not the telling us we need to get with the programs of all those new technologies. It’s really easier to do these things at our own pace and only if the thing dies a natural death with no possibility of recovery at all.

I don’t know about the rest of all you out there in the world of technophiles, but we aren’t members of that nerdy club, no way no how. We are the least technological people we know that grew up with these advantages of pure access. But do you know something?
We are still happy with what we do use our computer for, and it is for its original purpose…for solitaire and dominoes! Communication is just the icing on the cake!

It was rather cold today outside and so we stayed in, yes low sixties permeated the atmosphere that is an atmosphere that is more used to warmer and gentler temperatures than these ungodly chills that we have been getting!

Good night to you all and count those blessings and think about your gotta, wanta, need to haves and then realize that even minimalistic technologies like most of us have are quite something and we should add that into our blessings and we will too if ours doesn’t crash again or lock up again or what have you again… etc LOL!

Nice...but baffling... a good morning surprise!

With all the claims that people are hacking into different privacy guarded accounts I have been known to check our own personal bank accounts out several times a week, obsessive, no in my opinion just careful.
Since we use our debit and credit cards quite often, and they, the powers that be tell you to keep track of all that and you should, really too. Ours are quite fluid since almost as much that goes in goes out in our checking at least. The fact is that fortunately it is not too difficult to keep track of since I do it all online. We also have automatic deposit which I do think most everyone today has with the advent of mailbox robberies that started to hit the news waves years ago.

Any-who this morning I was thrilled but baffled when we did receive email notification that our electronic deposit of our tax refund had been put into our account; the only thing that seemed odd, was the fact that the amount was not correct. We had filed online through the IRS site, which is free to people whose incomes fall below a certain amount, and we qualified, and we have done so for years. But for some unknown reason sometimes we had to pay a minimal fee.
And so when I saw that the amount was not our sixty-eight bucks that I thought was coming back to us but quite a bit more; actually five hundred bucks more I just knew that they had made a mistake, and if I was dishonest and didn’t call them that they would eventually catch up with us and when we didn’t have it anymore by spending it foolishly on something like medical bills, they would ask for it back!
And so I called them to let them know.
And after I gave them all our information, and told them that we were supposed to get only the sixty-eight back they said they had made a correction on our tax form apparently we qualified for that ‘M’ form or some such thing and that the amount was correct since we had received the two hundred and fifty last spring, wow, what a nice surprise it is ours to do with whatever we so wish to do!
I see a nest-egg in our future.

I should have known that my palms don’t lie to me…oh you are wondering whatever I could be talking about, why itchy palms of course! Have you never heard of that before?
It pertains to… oh I really don’t know what it pertains to but every time it happens we seem to get money in our favor coming to us!
I know, I know it sounds silly, and I really don’t know if it is a superstition for others but to us it has been true over the years.
It seems left means in our favor and right is paying out.
Just like when a bird dies that someone that you care about will too?
I guess that one is just mine and a wee bit scary too.
Although, I do think I heard of an ancient Asian superstition that has something to also do with birds and death, but I could be wrong I have been wrong before…

On that peculiar note I will bid you all a very good night, count those blessings and we will too!



PS: GO USA in those Olympics!
PSS: And you go too Bill Clinton, happy you are doing so well!