Almost slewed the Dragon…

No, I'm not speaking in ye olden days. The Dragon, I speak of is the one to help me write this blog without using the keyboard. Sadly, we have had an issue with my speech patterns apparently or else it is not unlike the spell check and grammar check for this word program. It doesn't seem to have the capability of determining words that sound alike and mean different things or other anomalies in our language, called English. My frustration has come forth when I reread a post that I thought I edited and it still has several mistakes. It makes me feel the tedium in my trying to make things more palatable and not so darn hard. I had a terrible sleeping night last night; my neck my back and shoulders kept me up most of the night. And then I realized with my head also in odd pain with pressure in my skull pushing hard down; I thought to myself, AHA! For days I have been able to minimize the use of my soft cervical collar, since it doesn't make the right fashion statement that I try to project on our outings. All kidding aside, my aha moment was that perhaps I should wear it to help while I was sleeping. Now I don't know if it was responsible for me finally getting some sleep, but alas I did. It wasn't sound sleep, and never really is, for if it isn't pain I must have several bathroom visits during the nighttime hours due mostly to many of my medications telling me to drink plenty of fluids; how can I ever win this battle? Ironic, frustrating, and yet, oddly enough Dragon is trying its darndest to behave tonight, ha! Behaving makes it hardly worth complaining about; isn't that always the way; just when you think things are going badly they get better, ha, and that would be wonderful if it really was that way? Although, doesn't it seem like the pundits and the candidates have been playing this game of blame and complain and things have been quietly getting better all on their own…? Or maybe, the pres, that finally all his hard work is paying off? Perhaps, our patience was challenged and we flunked. Sure things are taking their time and it took a long time to get in this mess. Where did I hear that before? Did you ever feel like a parrot? I spoke too fast about Dragon, ever since I gave it all that high praise it has been screwing me over again. It slows the process of me writing all of this down when I have to continually manually change things. Oh sure, they have corrections and spelling installed in the program. I know it needs fine tuning and for some reason until I get ready to write this blog I don't remember that I need to do it. Sure procrastination is something I'm not proud of considering I was totally different when I was in the work force, but I am a retired bum these days. And so, if I do not resolve the tweaking as expeditiously as I should than I suppose I have no right to complain and I should be the one taking the blame. So many things in life are not that dissimilar to our in-home personal situations, is this not true? We have so many responsibilities, as our significant other/spouses, or our children, our extended families, business associates etc. and so when we neglect one to care more for another than we have priorities as well we should. Government agencies are not unlike our microcosms of our lives… And when we expect them to run more easily than our own immediate lives are we not expecting too much from complete strangers? Yes, it is true that we sort of hired these strangers to do our bidding for us, but do we know them any better than our own families; of course not! Then why do we expect them to do what we hope they will do just because, just because… Now I ask you, does this sound logical to you? I know we feel that we hire the ones that have integrity and blah, blah, blah, blah… But more times than not they prove to us that we goofed. I'm not saying that everyone we vote in is a Goofus, but not all are Gallants either and of course if any of us know anything about them, thank a teacher. The other thing that annoys the heck out of me is all those people out there that feel you have to make a million bucks to be happy. Whatever happened to being happy because you enjoy your life and the people in it and whatever else it takes to be happy; other than moola? I don't want to leave you on a sour note, so I just want to say that most days when things are quiet and without any severe pain dulling my sense of priorities other than the pain itself; I am a pretty happy gal. And being fat, dumb and happy is what it's cracked up to be… I must admit. On those words to live by, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Blind spot…

When speaking of a blind spot one may think mostly while in their car. But it is so much more: Definition of BLIND SPOT “1a : the small circular area at the back of the retina where the optic nerve enters the eyeball and which is devoid of rods and cones and is not sensitive to light —called also optic disk b: a portion of a field that cannot be seen or inspected with available equipment 2: an area in which one fails to exercise judgment or discrimination See blind spot defined for English-language learners » See blind spot defined for kids »” Thanks to: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/blind%20spot All of you heard the idiom: not to cry over spilt milk; well I almost did tonight, after dinner… You see, that I have certain medicines that I take at certain times of the day and my after dinner ones I was just about to take and oddly enough hubby and I both chose to have milk with dinner, a rarity and he placed his milk glass alongside of mine where we keep our sectioned off containers that hold our day’s medicine on top of the toaster oven, which is hardly used, but has our napkin holder, salt-and-pepper grinders, and those daily pills. Apparently, his cup of milk was to my right and we all know that my right eye is legally blind and lately the deficit of the loss of that vision appears to be playing more havoc with my perception than in the last two years plus that it has not worked. Who knows why that is; I certainly don't. Any-who, that's how it happened I knocked over his milk and at the same time went into spasms with my back and had to go sit in my recliner. Not funny, and I did not cry over spilt milk but Hubby did end up cleaning it up all by himself. And for that I did feel badly; what mess I left for him. Not his first that was caused and left by me with no other resolve than to sit it out; too many, and more and more often. I truly have guilt over some of the days that I feel more like a burden than other days. He had an incident today that could've caused him to lose an eye. We have quite a substantial shed off to the side of our swimming pool and within it is the pool’s filter, garden tools and other stored items, not to mention our small ride on lawnmower. But above them, hanging from the ceiling is an overage of indoor carpeting that is being stored there for the last few years that was hanging from a nylon cord. Today, hubby was about to mow the lawn and horrifically the cord broke and the room-sized carpet hit him on its way down to the floor above his left eye. He came in the back door and at first I thought his eye had a direct hit, fortunately his eyeglasses prevented that. Although, just above his eye was a bit of blood that looked nasty and his glasses were askew. The glasses took a hard hit and his first instinct was to fix the glasses frame not the lens except for a scratch, it did not break. Then he allowed me to examine his damage to him above his I brow, a bit of a rug burn and thankfully it wasn't as bad as we first thought. It was one of those cases of close but no cigar; thank heavens! After some careful consideration we discussed how to proceed for the day… He felt the necessity to mow the lawn in spite of the incident he didn't even want ice on his area of injury, but he was correct there was no swelling. His vision is fine and so be says and besides a little peroxide on the burn he seems none the worse for wear, and so I guess he wasn't extremely lucky. At this point the strapping, of the wood variety was installed to maintain all items in the rafters. That nylon cord did last nearly 8 years though, to be fair, of the initial way of storing such things. Probably, at the time we thought it wouldn’t be there that long, one never knows, does one? There is only one room left in this house with carpeting and that is the small guestroom; all the rest have ceramic tile… And if someday that carpet needs to be replaced we have our back up. We left it in there, the carpet that is, in the guestroom, where the guests, since most sleep over people were Northerners used to that sort of thing, warmer feet that is. But cool feels so good on your tootsies here in hot Florida, even with the air-conditioning on! Moving on… An update: the note oh really an e-mail that I sent about the differences in prices for the crafts fair was responded to last night by a gentleman named Greg and he told me that he would take care of it and I am sure that he has. It is our job as people on this planet to let people know when things are wonderful and when they need to be tweaked… for we are one big family of man/woman. I do believe there's a way to approach difficult topics and I will be the first to tell you that at times I royally screw that up, and so I have been tweaking my methods of how to do what I believe is our responsibility to one another. And it's always good to have a personal ‘Hubby’ in the house to get realistic feedback. On that note of some note…allow me to be the first to wish you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Buckler's Craft Fair today and tomorrow...

To whom it may concern: RE: Today, when we were there & tomorrow's: for the Buckler's Craft Show, your site http://charlotteharborecc.com/shared/event_detail.aspx?EventID=229896&WebLink=3.7FEDB662&xml_path=undefined states the price for admission is $3.00 adults/children 12 and under are free. And they offer a coupon for half price on theirs http://everythingpuntagorda.com/blog/bucklers-craft-fair-is-coming-to-the-charlotte-harbor-events-center-in-punta-gorda-september-29-30-2012/ , only thing is when you get there they say and a sign states the price is $6.00 for adults, why is there such a big discrepancy? I told the ticket takers that you have the price at $3.00. And of course they said it wasn't. I think you should be more careful and fix that; it was a bit embarrassing try to negotiate $3.00 even with the half off coupon which does not state either price. As you may have guessed we are retired and on a fixed income but do know to check on things before we go out... Thanking you in advance for taking care of this matter, cordially, Tobi (actually real name here) in Port Charlotte Florida With that said, we did have a rather nice time; albeit a short one, a little over an hour. I have pictures to show you that I took with the permission of the vendors, since you were not supposed to take any pictures. This practice of not taking pictures at a crafts fair is due mainly to people getting ideas and reproducing what they see and therefore not buying any products from the vendors. The only reason I was allowed to is because of this Blog and the fact I told them that is where I would be posting them and so now I shall keep that promise...

The only reason I posted these two together is due to them being right next to one another and newly weds… To get Joelly’s Fantastic Teas even in chocolate to go along with her hubby’s fantastic fudge you can go there tomorrow between 10 and 5 or call them at (386) 473-9673!

This was sooo amazing, although years ago I used to use these globules for keeping my 33 house plants appropriately watered… Science44.com, Water Beads is not only beautiful, breathtaking…sure is! But practical today too… you can make attractive displays in glass jars, vases, etc… or you can be a water conservationist with those house plants and surround them with them…for direct access in Fort Myers call: 239-471-0233 out of area call 1-800-385-8185.

The woman and man who do this functional art are from Wauchula Florida and to contact them at Victoria’s table: phone #863-445-0569, although you can see them again tomorrow at the above location and at the above times…

On the left is Ingrid and on her right are her exceptional dried flower art pictures, all done with care and love. She will be at the crafts fair again tomorrow or you can call her at: 540-661-2004. The last of what I enjoyed in the art realm of the fair is:

Cut glass bird feeders and unique lamps made from many different items…A Touch of Glass art using reusable items can be contacted through the artist: Jack Williams PO Box 8795, Sebring Florida 33872 Or by email: Atouch_of_glass@yahoo.com Or by calling: (509) 855-2878 As we all know that they were the usual holiday crafts too and wooden cottage stuff, but I thought these had a little more distinctiveness to them that I felt to highlight them… Now, if you are the conventional type that goes to these things to buy holiday gifts, or other occasional gifts, or to steal ideas… I must admit there is something for everyone, but do not take your camera in since they will ask you to NOT take pictures…that is unless you know the magic words like I did… So on that hours worth of observations, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share those overages and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Mommy gene?

When you were a child did it occur to you to become a parent? Sure we all played with dolls the girls did and the boys with toy soldiers and even with playing pretend families with neighborhood kids… But we also played war. Playing many games when we were children; we even had shows on picnic tables using sheets on clotheslines for curtains. I never became a soldier or a Broadway star… And yes, I did become a parent… But that's what us post war kids did. Now apparently there is a new book out stating that there is such a thing as a mommy gene; maybe I heard wrong, maybe they meant a mommy jean? And yes there is, those high riders. Could there also be a daddy gene? Maybe there is a daddy jean? And yes there is, those low riders in the seat that is. Well, hasn't this given us all something else to think about? Geez, after that horrendous movie insulting a religious sect not only did we suffer enormous losses of lives, and was not even caused by an American, but this week they are trying to get us in our pocketbooks by interfering with our online banking… Do we really care if there's a mommy gene? With more disgruntled ex-employees shooting up their former businesses… Do we really care if there's a mommy gene? The election is growing closer and we all must decide… For us it's easy… But some may not have the availability to check the facts as we do… So I ask you again, do we really care if there's a mommy gene? Iran daily gets closer to having a nuclear weapon and the only one that has control, not really as much as we hope, but can try to prevent any disasters from being caused is the United Nations, not individual countries. Although, some politicos seem to think that we here in America have more power than the United Nations and of course we don't. We all must strive for world peace and not assume it is in the hands of just one nation; it is all of our responsibility to have the word PEACE in our vocabulary of the world. So I ask you once again; do you care if there is a mommy gene? Oddly enough, and as far-fetched as it may seem, yes, we should all care that there should be a mommy gene. For if there is a mommy gene then I propose that the goodness, the kindness, the nurturing, the caring, the ability to resolve all conflicts, the unconditional love, the reliability, the responsibility etc., since you get my drift. Should be cultivated in all human beings, and then the world would be a much better place, and for that I am sure that you all agree. As you can see where I am coming from, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!

Tonight's the night…

Or perhaps I do; what's that you ask? I do minimalistic yellow journalism, oh no? Do we recall what yellow journalism really is? Sure you do. It's using provocative or intriguing come-on titles to entice or distract from what's actually being said or written. Nothing is beneath a sales pitch concept to try to sell a product, but still trying to stay within boundaries of honesty. No, I am not promoting dishonesty or anything like yelling fire in a crowded theater, or possibly words that entice people to argue or worse. But I am not so low or too high to not try to sell what I am doing here nightly. Perimeters are lines drawn within a certain area; you knew that, and that is where I draw my line within those configurations. I suppose that to really be a yellow journalist you would have to think that boundaries have no lines in your mind. Being not totally honest makes it easy for these people to not have any guilt with how they proceed. Many of us were taught guilt by our parents; they were our consciences and that sort of thing sticks with you if you are a decent human being. The laissez-faire attitude of parenting is what creates some children when they become adults to not be so reliable with thoughts and deeds. Although, it has been said that common sense is born in you and it cannot be taught. Since I only had one year of abnormal child psychology, I don't know if this is true or not. Sometimes things in life seem logical, and then something changes to make the reasoning not as simplistic as first thought to be. Tonight is the night that my title is not necessarily what the content of my blog is… But I did not write the title to mislead you; only to have you read my offering! And so in reality I suppose this is considered light yellow journalism or is it light reading? No, let me, it's both! Have you ever noticed on a slow news day how stations seem to run a lot of segments that used to be called fluff pieces… Since I am not in the business anymore I have no idea. But at least when they sneak in happy stories/items they have sustenance; and this has none. Although, the famous TV show, called Seinfeld, insisted that their writing for the show was about nothing at all and so I feel I am presenting quality nonessential entertainment, or not… (BIG SMILE HERE!) Sure, I am no Seinfeld, but you must admit that I write often about nothing… Of course you do! And due to that fact alone tonight is the night that I will be doing a demi-blog, not to be mistaken for a demi-G-d. I know it's not an exact rhyme, but who’s perfect; definitely not me. Let's recap: tonight is the night that I twisted you up in anticipation of something significant being said and I screwed with your brains and I gave you bupkis, not a thing, nil, nada, zero… And I had a good time and I hope it was good for you too? No? Well, we all know that you get what you pay for, hmm? On that what-have-you, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

Katie Holmes called her first love…

Now, didn't we all think that Tom Cruise was her first love; I know. After all, she had a poster hanging in her room with him on it, since she was a teenager. She made contact with an old chum that she actually dated is what she meant, a real live fellow that she had cared about by the name of Joshua Jackson. He was her co-star on the TV series Dawson’s Creek. How nice is that? He's been involved with someone else ever since she married Tom Cruise; what could she be thinking? Contacting an old friend for friendship or something more? For the rest of us mere mortals how many of you have ever contacted an old friend of the opposite sex that might've been a boyfriend or girlfriend or same-sex friend? While you were in between relationships and found out they were still involved with someone? What would you do? Kidding, this isn’t one of those shows, those tell all shows. But how much fun would that be to be a gossip columnist? You all know that's not something new they've been around forever as long as newspapers have been around. Oh you thought it was just those gossip girls on their TV show… Well no! “The first gossip columnist, dominating the 1930s and 40s, was Walter Winchell, who used political, entertainment, and social connections to mine information and rumors, which he then either published in his column On Broadway, or used for trade or blackmail, to accumulate more power. He became "the most feared journalist" of his era. In Hollywood's "golden age" in the 1930s and 1940s, gossip columnists were courted by the movie studios, so that the studios could use gossip columns as a powerful publicity tool. During this period, the major film studios had "stables" of contractually obligated actors, and the studios controlled nearly all aspects of the lives of their movie stars. From the 1930s through the 1950s, the two best-known - and competing - Hollywood gossip columnists were Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons.” To read more go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gossip_columnist The one thing we should all remember is that although many of us enjoy hearing gossip; it can be harmful if misused like any other lethal weapon and so I recommend not using it. Its okay to listen, well not really, but don't encourage others to use it either; I'm talking about in the real world. As far as journalism goes no, more than likely in yellow journalism, or false journalism, but hopefully it isn't used. Quick question, do any of you know what is meant by yellow journalism? “Yellow journalism, or the yellow press, is a type of journalism that presents little or no legitimate well-researched news and instead uses eye-catching headlines to sell more newspapers. Techniques may include exaggerations of news events, scandal-mongering, or sensationalism. By extension, the term yellow journalism is used today as a pejorative to decry any journalism that treats news in an unprofessional or unethical fashion.” To read more go to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism Mostly you will hear gossip on those magazine shows, talk shows, TMZ and the like but as we all know they are either lawyers themselves or have a team of them on tap. And so I highly recommend that what comes out of your mouth or your pen or your keyboard should be an absolute fact or paraphrased fact with legitimate sources to prove what you're stating, CYA. (If you live under a rock…CYA means: cover your ass! KIDDING, of course; no one lives under a rock, maybe a snake or a worm does… but you get my drift, hmm? And a BIG Cringe Factor to boot!) Everyone I meet is brilliant and so why I do my little asides is mainly to remind me what those acronyms actually mean; a little test to make sure the old noggin is working. And I surprise myself or I look it up; I guess I cheat a little, sometimes, but only with myself so that makes it okay, right? (Small giggle, inserted here.) And so in closing what I do here can never be mistaken for journalism, yellow journalism or even for simple-minded gossiping, since my social life is not that great and so how would I know who you know? Besides, we don't get out that much and when we do it is just us more often times than not. Now before you start feeling sorry for us, this is a choice that we have made for no logical reason at all and I have no idea why, except this way we only have ourselves to answer to? If you believe that one; I have some swampland that I could sell you, but that's only if I owned some, otherwise it would be fraud! Gotta love being silly, it occurs periodically throughout the day, due possibly to lightheadedness; that could be caused by my medications or by my many illnesses, but at this point who knows; and who cares? Kidding, sure I do. But do you know what I would have to go through to find out? Good; neither do I. On that wee bit of silly, allow me to be the first to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear?

I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, for a very important date…

Sorry folks that nice young man from the bed company, Easy Rest, adjustable sleep system was here to demonstrate and sell his product for three hours so we just finished eating dinner. I told them that I knew we could not afford to purchase one of their beds because I thought they were a few thousand dollars and I was wrong. They are several thousand dollars. The salesman Augustine Robles was sincerely a nice fella. Although, all the information he left for us and no address or phone number for us to contact the company, only his cell phone number. Oh wait, I Googled the company, but of course here’s the site with the phone number: http://get.easyrest.com/index3.php?Offer=W37&KeyCode=HLM-FI-OLS&num=1.800.695.5079 It is evident to me that although they had several payment plans, but we told him that the last bed we bought was for a tenth of the price for his bargain bed and we only buy what we can afford; we were definitely not his appropriate target audience for his sale. In a way it was a shame, since the product is an excellent product and had heat and massage as well as the ability to move your head your neck hear back whatever your legs etc. into comfortable sleeping, reading, eating were TV watching positions. The price ranges from his quotes for the superior or supreme one started at just a few hundred over $9000. The bargain without many bells or whistles not much better than a flat bed was over $3000. Our last bed that we bought after the hurricane I shopped and found the best price for it at the Sam's Club it is Sealy Posturepedic pillow-top king size mattress that replaced our soaking wet one after the hurricane, most wanted to charge thousand dollars but Sam's only charged $700 for the same mattress; what a bargain that was back in 2004 December. Sure the prices are higher now, although I do occasionally look when we are in there and the pricing seems to be pretty much the same on those mattresses, even today, and now I understand they deliver them. Back then I why did tied to the roof the Blazer, but they told me it wasn't safe and so I had a have Hubby come back with me after he got off work with the boat trailer to schlep it home. Yes that boat trailer came in handy for most of the rebuild on this house, and it transported bathtubs and toilets; you on name it! Actually, when I think back their reasoning for not allowing a king size mattress to ride on the roof of a small SUV was not only wise but logical in the long run, since I would look like Sister Bertrille, you know Sally Field, flying nun? Yes, that king sized mattress had probability factor and I would've created quite a stir riding down route 41 with the possibility of becoming airborne was not unjustified and to their way of thinking… Although, at the time, I was annoyed, after much thought I did realize that they were right. Mind you, I was eight years younger then and it wasn't from lack of trying to change their minds believe me that time I was definitely wrong. Moving on… It frightens me how sad I really must be for I spoke an awful lot, not surprising you say, yes, I have confessed that I write the way I talk and I talk the way I write. Verbosity is me, and sadly the older I get the more long winded I seem to become. I suppose it is a good way to make sure my lungs are functioning, after all, up until a little over six years ago they had more smoke than air in them… Singing is an excellent way to make sure that your lungs are doing what they're supposed to do and if I had my druthers I would be singing all day long. But sadly, when you don't do something for a long time, like any fine instrument, it would need a fine tuning and someone with better hearing than me or Hubby to determine that the tune is and in tune, aha! It seems that both of us from loud music or loud machinery have some slight deficits. I swear I am this far, I'm putting my thumb my pointer fingers about a quarter inch from one another, of being the next Helen Keller; if only I could be as smart bright and cheerful and happy and wonderful and she was, nah it's not gonna happen they broke the mold with her. At the age of 12 I read, The Miracle Worker and they do believe it changed me in ways that have helped me over the years understand true compassion. Many books have that effect that's why reading such a wonderful thing and I'm sure not like many children in the beginnings of my reading times in life I only read what I enjoyed and why not? Oh, that's right required reading for school… I see that the time is running away from me and so as much as I still have something to say, tomorrow is another day. Please allow me to wish you all a very happy good night and ask you kindly to count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too! And next time please be here or be square, ya hear!