Company

Tis the season to have what we all call company and what does that mean really?
And ‘company’ is for the sole purpose of enjoyment of others not of the immediate or perhaps of the immediate family and or friends circle that you do not see daily or regularly to spend some time with in your home or maybe even at theirs, but then you would be their company, got that?
Gotta love the concept and wonder who started it?
Company, I mean being it has so many meanings, visitors, a group of soldiers, a chartered commercial organization.
Gosh if I was not an English speaking person and knew what I meant I could possibly become confused, huh?
Who knows I could think we were going to be attacked by a bunch of soldiers or taken over by another business, ha!

Again I am so happy that I have grown up with this language although I must admit it still has a wondrous ability to confound me when I least expect it.
I know I am not that smart, but neither am I that dumb.

The type of visitors/company that we do love though is any!
That all inclusive family and friends, neighbors too type of Peeps!
It’s just that I wish at times they would not be so ceremonious about their comings and goings, you know what I mean?
Impromptu guests are sometimes the best.
You know the ones without too much fanfare.
But when they arrive the joy exudes from their being, which causes you to not want them to leave.
Gosh, it’s been ages since we felt that…but you all know I bet what I do mean, right?

These are people who are of the ilk of taking you as you are and are welcoming to what is new in your life as you truly are with theirs since the exchange of conversation is mutual to a fault, not really a fault but perhaps longer than either of you care to stop…a longing for that unadulterated love of a fellow human being who gets you and you them!
And tells you that they truly find you interesting and you them as well, simpatico, wow what a feeling!
Lovers feel that, and so do old friends.
But on occasion we have that with even our own family members, what a wonderful concept!
And yes that thing called love without question; in other words ‘acceptance’.

Some days lets face it we might have been at one time or another perhaps a little bit too judgmental of others from critiquing wardrobes, hairstyles, even tattoos or piercings, appearances in general; not to mention behavior or jobs or attitudes or educations. We as humans have a tendency to on occasion believe that we know the tried and true way to do this or wear that.
And so as the euphemistic, ‘they’ say, we all do.
Sadly some are more subtle than others, but lets’ admit it we do, do it!

And with the holiday season upon us I would like to make a suggestion to all of us human beings… to try and not comment on those differences that may irk us and just enjoy what you’ve got…people in your realm or vicinity of your giving loving selfless selves to be rewarded with a good listening ear and loving open heart and with as many hugs as you can stand or sit as in my case!
Those are the truly free welcoming gifts to all and probably the best remembered!

Oh and yes to my friend who sent the little anecdote forward about compassion, yes love is compassion when putting yourself in the other person’s place then you can really understand what they are going through; its as simple as that!

On that note of course of we all knew... I will bid you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and ask you to share those overages and we will too!

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


PS Update on my swollen glands: this morning they were feeling better so I called my doc and told her that, but they have been hurting on and off all day long since so more aspirin and warm compresses seem to help. Since I have too many things to do for Thanksgiving for time for this additional ailment!

Hullabaloo

An interesting word that I am sure not many of this latest generation has heard of in recent years.
But to us ‘Baby Boomers’ it meant a TV show that was our MTV of the 1960’s along with Dick Clark’s American Bandstand and Shindig.
For more info copy and paste: wikipedia.org/wiki/Hullabaloo_(TV_series) -

But oddly enough those above reasons are not why I chose that word for tonight’s title.
It was its actual meaning of: ‘a din also uproar’.
I will allow the English majors to diagnose what type of word form it is, since me knowing its distinctive unusual connotation is enough for me to see its versatility.
And so I dusted it off and decided it was about time it came out of the basement or attic or perhaps just our closets of wherever unused words lie dormant and send it into my vocabulary web of controversy.
That’s a mouthful!
But I am more than sure you are intrigued to know where I am going from here, huh?

Last night I had a bit of bad luck health wise again I seemed to have acquired swollen glands but mostly on my left side of my neck and jaw.
And so this woman of needing to know persona logically ‘wanted to know’ what remedies one could find to fix the problem and if this might be another symptom of my MS?
And so I Googled 'Swollen Glands and MS', and ended up in one of those forums online discussions with others who also experienced this.
Many said it was due to their administering of the injections of Copaxone and others were tested for everything from the common flu to Lymphoma, scary!
Of course there is always that thought in anyone’s mind with this problem but I tried to go the sedate cautious route and so I contacted my support people, Shared Solutions, for my Copaxone, but it was Sunday night and so I didn’t get a hold of them until this morning and they said to call my Neuro and I did.
And she got back to me much sooner than I thought with her busy schedule.
We were grocery shopping for Thanksgiving when she called me on my cell in the store.
She disputed the comments of the forum but I said that the support people said that in the adverse reactions section of their PDF file said on page three that 7% reported Lymphadenopathy, swollen glands. She said that she felt that it would be according to what she read swollen glands on the side of the body like under my arm from where I was most recently injected, not in the neck or jaw.
I mentioned I had no fever and that I had, had my flu shot in September.
She said if it still is not better to come in tomorrow for a check up but to continue with the injections.
I said I hope it would be better since I was using aspirin, warm compresses and hot tea, and even hot chicken bouillon for my choices to contend with it.
Although, aspirin and me don’t get along too well since I have a sensitive stomach, but it did help me sleep last night with my warm compress too!
My Doc then said just call one way or another and I thought that was so nice of her.
Of course I agreed. Was this my uproar?

Pleasantly surprised was my other interesting happening of the day.
Around four thirty this afternoon I received a phone call.
But to my astonishment it was from the other side of the world!
One of my Facebook friends from all places called me from New Zealand! (11:30 A.M tomorrow there, when she called if you were wondering)
Why in the world would someone with a life and so far away from my one boring one contact me from a landline?
Apparently, she just had gotten a new international phone line and was contacting a few of us, her Facebook friends.
That was so nice to be included in that, but also totally unexpected, she did tell me how much she enjoys these Blogs, which I did of course appreciate, just sooo amazingly decent and kind of her. Still incredulous I do believe that is the farthest long distance call I have ever received!

This was my DIN!

On that tidbit of wow I will wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and be sure to share those overages and we will too!

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

Assumptions

It was bound to happen sooner or later, huh?
The word that’s meaning can cause me to cringe.
We all have done it over the years assumed something about somebody.
Or just plain took the giant leap into reacting to what we had assumed!

I am not anymore depressed than anyone else in the world.
We are all naturally affected by what goes on around us in the home on the news or just life in general.
Did I ever tell any of you that I did have a few semesters of psychology?
Well, I did.
And in order for someone to be considered clinically depressed they must be overwhelmingly sad for long periods of time or suicidal or both.
So when we all have that quota of bad days that does not qualify us as being clinically depressed, OK?
Unless you are that way constantly, and for many months in a row with fatalistic thinking that encompasses your daily activities and creates a human being with no ability to change their attitude about life and that has given up.
Sadly, then you are someone who needs immediate intervention before you do harm to yourself or others.

My point is that although I have bad or what I call sad days and I am resilient enough to never ever have more than one or two in a row.
So most of the lovely cheerful notices (forwards) that I get about attitude are singing to the choir when or if it is meant for me to change my frown and turn it upside down! LOL!
You see I am the one who has been doing it for years!
Gotta love the forwards that I receive, some have been around for years and others are just different versions of the same old ones.
I have learned especially now not to forward most since I having all these technical problems, and because most who have been online have seen them all before.
Yesterday I received one of those urban legend ones about MS being not an actual ill but symptomatically caused by artificial sweeteners, and that was sent by a well meaning friend.
I first saw that one way back in 2005 or maybe earlier and quickly asked my well respected Multiple Sclerosis Neurologist about the possibility. He laughed and said no that it had been a joke for years and there was no truth in it.
I only wish that it was true, but the first time I saw it I was so concerned I read my artificial sweetener label and found out that mine didn’t even have the chemical composition of the one in question! Whew.
Then another well meaning person told me that all my medical problems were due to mold, and since we had any of it and all of it removed after the hurricane I was baffled.
Any-who, you gotta love the old wives tales that have come down from history, which in many cases have proven to be fact at some time in our time, interesting, huh?
So one never really knows, does one?

And so over the last several years I always ask the people of that profession for information and never ever assume that what my well meaning laymen friends tell me is true unless I can back it up with factual info from the ones who studied it for years!
Sorry folks, but I do respect your concern.

On the lighter side: On Friday with all my time on my hands I spoke on the phone, cell with all those roll over minutes, to my cousin who also has MS, the one in Ohio. She did not have a very good recent report form her Neuro. Apparently, her latest MRI showed more lesions than before, and she had been off all MS medication for nearly seven months due to her other meds being too dangerous and that is why they were stopped. Her Neuro, who just so happens to be a woman like mine is going to be putting her on the newest medication which for the first time is in pill form and has been approved by the FDA!
She was hopeful and I was too for her, since she had been on so many different ones over her nearly thirty-six year fight with her MS.
We spoke for nearly two hours about our children, relationships, things in general, our common family members, and what we like to do for fun, etc.
We giggled like school girls at times and got as serious as a heart attack at others.
And in the end we promised to call each other whenever, and she being single at this time requested for me if I would try to find her a guy!
If any of you recall she is my cousin that was in her youth a Farah Fawcett look-a-like and even in her older self she still has it.
She is a liberal arts grad, who worked for the airlines as a flight attendant, in those days a STEWARDESS, for eighteen years, and they wanted her to do commercials, but she was too shy and refused.
For any guy she would be a great gal to know.
I’m not much of a matchmaker anymore, although in my youth I did have a success story of one couple that I did introduce and they later married.
But I lost touch and who knows if they still are…
That was quite an honor for her to think I had the ability to find her someone good enough for her, wow is an understatement… who knows what I might turn up.

On that thoughtful idea to maybe try a new profession, HA, I will wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Deal

Sometimes a good deal is not what you think…
For nearly twelve years we have been with one online subscriber; if nothing else we have been loyal.
And so when I kept trying to install Internet Explorer 8 after I thought that with our new hard drive should work I was sadly surprised to find out that my assumption was way off… and we have discussed many times before why assuming is not what it is cracked up to be…its: ‘making an ass of you and me’;(Don't worry I do still cringe using that expletive!) for those of us with short term memory loss I felt it was only beneficial to mention!

The one equation of the whole process I did not take into causing any problems within my simplistic brain was… that us bargain hunters of ye olde in the ages… are still on DIAL UP!
I know I am so ashamed!
Penny wise and dollar foolish in this case since the deal we made yesterday combining our home phone and speedy service on this thing actually came out to less by a few bucks a month than what we were paying! And it will be good to go in less than a week, yea!
Oh well, I never said I was a ‘know it all’…
Although, some may think I think I am, but nah not really.
Confidence and arrogance once again come too close together sometimes I must admit.
Number two son has always had that problem too, hmmm that explains a lot!

Let me clarify what I have learned in these later years… I was brilliant when I was fifteen years old and knew everything and as I got older I found out that I know very little!
At least when I was fifteen I thought I knew everything and now at this ripe old senior age, by AARP standards anyway, I KNOW NOTHING!
And that is sooo true folks, but I am sure you were all ahead of the game and could have told me that months ago, right? LOL!

Any-who…
And so my brain is a clean slate, so to speak.

Unfortunately, my love of recognition and conversation and butting into others questioning posts is now on hold, but watch out… I will come back with some really good zingers I truly hope so anyway.

Fun is wherever you find it and so we all know at our different ages and target audience stages in life one can be hysterically funny to a few and just plain annoying to others when some of us go totally unnoticed at all to many.

And so you gotta have a gimmick as they say in the biz… that’s the show biz honey!
You gotta grab ‘em on the funny-bone (elbow kids, it’s in the elbow, nothing irreverent or indecent here moms or dads) to make them see what’s what, huh?
Sure I do have to.

Joy can be an inflexible lover in the writing biz, but who doesn’t know the power of expressing it in volumes of flowery enthusiastic dialogue?
Sure we all do when we set our mini minds to it.
My point is I started off tonight with explaining about the deal that went down with our new online subscriber and how silly I was not to see it for what it was all these years… the better smarter way to go.

But that is not the only deal I wanted to discuss tonight it was my idea to have more readership when all is back to normal or I should say better than normal, and what I would personally love is to know who my tried and true followers are, OK?
Not too much to ask really.

On that note of curiosity, which I have been told is one of the many proofs of trying to learn more… I will wish you a very happy good night and to count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

And next time please be here or be square, OK!

Well...

Not as good as it gets.
Yes, our computer seems to be working fine now.
But our online is not.
Have you ever felt that you were misunderstood?
Sure you have.
We all have at one time or another.

You see, since I have no idea what the mess exactly was that the person who stole my Face book ID did except for being told that they were sending out continuous SPAM.
Is it my job to apologize, for something that I did not do and did not know about?
What is the proper protocol on something like this?

I guess even though I had no idea that any of it was going on until I was informed by email by Face book it wouldn’t hurt to say that I feel awful about it?
But I honestly was totally unawares that it was going on at the time.

Meanwhile, I have not been able to click on anything on my page but I still can see what everyone else is posting... and so this is my warning to all I am watching you! LOL!
And some of it seems to be directed at me?
Or I could be paranoid? Something I would like to not be considered or right about, but…
Most of you out there do realize that I try nightly to write as much tongue in cheek humor as I can when the mood suits me.
But not even Jim Carey can be silly all the time, right?
OK BAD EXAMPLE!
He’s always funny!

There are some nights though like most of us that I cannot be chipper, since folks I am human… JUST LIKE YOU ARE TOO! LOL
At least I think you are, but then again most of you are just words in the wind like I am to you too! And I suppose I am the most ‘big winded’ of us all!

Silly is as silly does and one must always try to find a way for that to be the prevalent situation.
See ‘Situation’ can mean more than just washboard abs on a fake New Jerseyite! (For those who didn’t know or live under a rock; he is a New Yorker!) LOL!

At times you may have noticed that I do enjoy metaphorically getting on my ‘Soapbox’, and expressing my biased opinions about this or that.
Don’t we all enjoy doing that when speaking with our buds?

And at times I do like to share anything that I might consider important to the world at large to hear about in an unbiased format.
As you must realized by now that Blogging has not gained the respect of being a journalistic medium as of yet, but I do hope I live long enough when I might see that change.

I know in my case not being paid for this hogwash does take the legitimacy out of it, but did you know that some guest journalists on tried and true respected newspapers do not get paid either for their contributions?
Yep, that’s true, I haven’t been paid for any of mine, contributions that is, and I did have a few by-lines in one just such paper.

So I guess I can say that I have been able to maintain my amateur status, since if I recall correctly what establishes you as a professional in a certain occupation, is being PAID for that JOB!
So far, not one itsy bitsy amount of moola changed hands and I do think that on occasion I was worthy of something?
I suppose love is more than what anyone can pay me for any of this…since I do so really enjoy what I do here.
But with the Face book page down and me not being able to post to it sadly I feel just awful that I don’t have anyone seemingly reading this… it makes me sad enough to cry.
Oh dear!
That’s definitely not silly, is it?

My personal information that I do share here is for me to be able to see it and adjust to it and perhaps solve those little issues that grind at my soul, and it is quite helpful.
Have you ever made a list of things of why to do or not do something?
The best way I found is to use one side for the good reasons and the other for the bad reasons not to do it.
It puts decision making into perspective, and weighs the pluses and minuses to be more logical in my choices.

This forum has helped me voice many concerns in my reality and in retrospect with everyone who has read this I do believe similar situations for many of us has been helping others; at least that’s what my comments of feedback have told me.
And you know something that makes me even feel better about this whether I share at times a little too much I do know that someone out there may have had that commonality and got it and I helped them too!

So as silly as I want to try to be sometimes honest heartfelt commentary is a good thing and I will not change what’s true about me.

On that note of letting you all know where I stand in my world, which is yours too…I will bid you all a very happy good night and ask you to count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Repetition

Hello peeps; today has been a devilish repetition of the last several weeks.
Our computer though had its last hoorah and it took it upon itself to really crash beyond our usual consideration of using our restoration discs.
Hubby diagnosed it correctly by the ticking noise sort like a small bomb or old fashioned clock and The Geek Crew at Best Buys had our much needed new hard drive at a price that wasn’t lethal to our finances.
We did upgrade to more GB’s, 500, and hopefully we will be good for another few years!
It did come with a three years warrantee. They tried to talk us into 999.9 but I called number one son and he said we didn’t need that much and so we listened to him and saved twenty bucks more!
And all new now for less than sixty bucks!

The fact that Hubby had been saying that was the problem all along makes me feel silly that we didn’t really fix it sooner… but when I would call all those tech retail outlets type places they gave me wild prices of hundreds of dollars to replace the tower, and stupidly I didn’t ask about just the hard-drive, duh, my bad.

But I still have a bit of a glitch online with my Facebook page it appears that it is frozen to my touch of anything that I may try to do. I received an email notice that someone stole my identity and that I should contact them and set up a new password but when I tried to open the notice nothing would!
And not only Facebook but almost all online searches are extremely slow.
This is crazy, any suggestions?
I guess I can contact my online subscription.
Hopefully that will help.
Now even the printer is working ala Hubby’s perseverance once again!
It’s so nice to let a man take over some times; it nearly makes me giggle with the thrill of it all.
Nah, but trusting someone other than yourself sometimes is difficult and since although married all these years being in the business world you do become slightly skeptical and rightfully so.
Not that I am saying you should trust no one I am saying it may be hard to decide who is trustworthy enough to hand that over to, got that?
Family should be always trustworthy but many know sadly that is sometimes not the case.
All you to have to do is to watch or read the news nightly to know that is true.
Wives paying hit men, husband’s doing the same kids killing parents must I go on; truly frightening!
Scary, huh, but even when you think that you know a friend they could be devious too and back stab you too.
Not a very nice topic… but unfortunately these things do happen.

Trust is an issue with me because of many being nice and taking advantage of me and then stabbing me, metaphorically in the back.
Like this problem with Facebook saying that someone is actually sending people SPAM with my ID, how did that happen when I friended all those more than 1500 peeps?
Now what do I do?
Help!

On that needy request and exhausting day I will still wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

Birthday!

Today is Hubby’s birthday!
And it was his year older than me one! Whew!
You heard that right, yes for four and half months a year we are the same age at the same time!
Do you know something?
I don’t like that, and as much as I complain he still has done nothing about it.
Change is sometimes not going to happen, and so I guess I should get resigned to that fact in my life.
Last year was the bigger celebratory one anyway and so we had a very nice shindig with quite a few guests.
This year was not that major although my intention to create a happy day for him is what I tentatively did try to do.
But the best laid plans of men and or women…you know the rest…
First of all our computer is only doing some things these last few days since it is not well.
It doesn’t recognize our printer for some reason beyond my control, and so my plan ‘B’ to make Hubby a birthday card had failed before I got started.
These last two years I have not been able to drive due to the weakness/numbness in my legs and all my medication, and so getting out by myself to buy one was out too!
And so to not put the public at large in jeopardy I have taken the initiative to NOT drive, as well as our auto insurance company the one previously questioning my abilities when I only used a cane, imagine now with a four wheeled walker or mobility scooter to get from here to there what they would say? PS, We went with another insurance company for premium reasons, better deal, not because of me.
So I am a backseat driver who is great at that for as long as I know I can keep the world safe from me…who knows if that could change…
And so after Hubby turned down my offer for a fancy breakfast I asked what he would like to do, I had already made him a rough pen and ink birthday card on computer paper and placed it at his table setting.

Dear sweet Hubby wanted to go to the mall of all places!
And so we went.
Me in my scooter and him on his two feet went up and back around the mall and then stopped at Sears to see if they had a barbecue rotisserie kit for our great barbecue that we were smart enough to buy before the hurricane hit and put it into the garage, it is stainless inside and out and a five burner with a side burner too.
The reason I wanted to try it for our Thanksgiving this year, a rotisserie turkey, since it was just the four of us going to be here and we would only need a small one.
Last time we had tried to barbecue a turkey was on our first Thanksgiving in Florida on the east coast in Ormond Beach way back in 1986 and it was a disaster since it was too large and we eventually took it off and threw it in the oven!
That had marred the concept all these years… so this is a breakthrough for us to try it once again, wish us luck!
Oh that’s right we had been previously searching the net to try and find a place with the best price for the rotisserie and most were ridiculously priced at a few hundred bucks!
And so when we saw this universal Char Broil one for only $39.99 we bought it!
Hubby still was not sure we got the BEST deal and so he stopped at Home Depot and the same one there was nearly seventy bucks for the same exact one!
Good shopping I would say.

Before we left the mall we did not go to the food court this time for lunch but tried a new restaurant that was there, and the food was not that good so I won’t mention the name.
But Hubby asked for his burger to be medium and it was nearly breathing and even the shrimp in my salad tasted as if it was raw and just defrosted! I know we should have sent them back, and there was a time that this old gal would have but these days I just don’t go back…Last time for that place. Hope we don’t get sick, stay tuned for that one.

We came home and after relaxing for a few hours I suggested we eat out again, twice in one day? What are we on vacation or something? Yep, birthdays should be stay-cations, especially when Hubby was thinking he was going to make dinner.
I said let’s get out of here.
And so we did, and went to our local home-style comfort food chain, and again Hubby and I had a mixed revue. We both ordered from the fifty-five and over menu the open-faced roast beef sandwich that came with mash potatoes and gravy and would you believe more bread! I thought it came with glazed baby carrots but only the younger crowd got the healthier fair apparently, and so I got the side of carrots that we shared for two bucks more which would have been the same price as the under fifty-five peeps for each of us, got that?
Any-who the meat was more like pot roast than roast beef since it was rough-stew in texture and tasty but nothing like slabs of roast beef that we are used to.
So I thought they gave us the wrong meat, but the waitress insisted it was correct.
Geez, twice in one day, but this was cooked all the way through and tasted good and so I said OK to leave it.
Too tired to argue, but I did mention that it was Hubby’s birthday and they brought him an ice cream Sunday and sang to him before we left.
Nice touch.
All in all it was not that terrible a day for not being the ‘big one’ day; Hubby has just reported that it was a very happy good day although he feels stuffed like a puffer fish! Uh oh they are toxic if prepared the wrong way! LOL!

Number one son called too to wish him a very happy b-day and to confirm that he will be here next week to do it in person!
Now I feel better that not all was lost; see where there is a will there is a way!

On that note of making the best of what life gives you… I will wish you all a very happy good night and to all count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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