Tropical Storm Andrea .

Today was our first round of the season, hurricane season, and we faired ok at chateau Hubby, Tobi and Skipper’s cottage, or as I like to say HTSC, not really, who says that, in the southwest of Florida USA!

We did not batten down the hatches, since we weren’t told that we needed to, although, me being me, prepared the only safe room in our home, our hallway, for the three of us to hunker down if need be with, a chair for Hubby and a Mommy blanket, (his artificial sheepskin throw, same color as him, and when a pup, if he fell asleep on it, he would appear to disappear on it!) for Skipper and my rolling cushioned seat for me, my indoor walker/wheelchair, Skipper’s water bowl with two milk bones I was going to scoot his food bowl over from the kitchen too if it came to that, and his lead as well as a spare to tie onto the door handles that helped with Hurricane Charley when our guestroom window blew out from our neighbors roof hitting it, and Hubby’s and my stainless steel water bottles. I also put in the seat of my walker, flashlights, camera and our shoes in case of debris to walk out after, our wallets and my cooling vest, incase we lost power.

Just getting ready!

We were after all in a tornado warning for a few hours than a watch, tropical storm warning and than watch and of course a flood watch too!

Quite a nerve wracking day for us with bad experiences in our pasts memories.

The rains delivered quite a bit of inches, more than four, and the winds nearly reached sixty MPH.

Even a few tiny tornadoes did touch down but not here in other areas of our state with no deaths reported as of yet, TG, and minimal damage.

We took a few PICS during from safely indoors but even Hubby did not venture out until it really let up...our canal first pic.
Out of our window, torrential downpour and one of our wind-chimes, next pic. You see that blue object sticking out sideways off to the side of the round metal object is a blue plastic dolphin, windy! We have three different types of wind-chimes in front of our sun-room windows to prevent birds from smashing into them and they have worked just fine over these several years that we have been doing this, but between them and the brass ship’s bell by the back door our musical symphony was not so harmonious as one might think! For our next storm threat we would do better to remember to take them down and inside.

Too full and very dirty pool, last, all thanks to Tropical Storm Andrea, but we will take it; better than total devastation for heaven’s sake!

Wish it will stop raining soon; the grass needs cutting, badly!

Nice to be able to think about mundane dumb stuff once again, hmm?

On that note of a not too sour one, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night, and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who, we will too!

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

Eclectic sort of day, a workout, Bob Evans and even remembering an old collar with a passing of a familiar prostitute.

Who says life has to be boring?

Today started out ordinary, with my workout continuing with no subtractions or additions, but maintaining.

The problem though this time was that it is a rehab, no not that that is a the problem… but in their occupational therapy area they do have a mini kitchen for helping people relearn how to do everyday things; it has a frig and gosh all I can remember is seeing many crock pots for today, all over the place and that aroma that could only be described as pot roast and mashed potatoes and gravy emanating from them all throughout the facility.

Not being shy we asked what was up and Sharon I do believe answered Josh, one of the physical therapists, who is leaving and they were making him his going away party, mmmmmmmm such good stuff being served there.

But so unfair to us exercisers trying hard to lose weight!

Kidding! Self control must be part of the regime.

Although, it did make Hubby and me say almost at the same time that we should go out to lunch for some comfort food, and the only place we could think of for that was, Bob Evans! We almost said at the same time.

And so we went and I was all set to order the bad for me stuff, but they had a nice salad with cranberries and pecans and chicken on top that came in a smaller size with a light raspberry vinaigrette dressing and so I went for that with my unsweetened iced tea with extra lemons…with refills of course. Hubby did get the pot roast and mashed potatoes and extra gravy and carrots, and a carafe of coffee.

We both received enormous warm homemade biscuits with our meals, two each and I am ashamed to say I ate them, bad me.

But I did make fifteen bean soup for dinner and I had no bread or crackers and so I am redeemed, I hope!

The interesting part came when we were waiting for our order in Bob Evan’s to be served, watching the people which I still enjoy doing.

A heavy set gal with a mini/mini skirt with fishnets beneath, I kid you not, and a blouse with fishnet sleeves and other integral obvious sharing too much locations all in black with dyed black hair and jewelry and gosh I just caught a glimpse from the back of the woman as she and her girlfriend appeared to be heading towards the restrooms.

Hubby looked at me and said he had arrested her… And I asked, for solicitation? He said no, for drunk and disorderly and resisting arrest, he had to call a female officer to help with her that time ten or more years ago since the woman lay down on the ground and she was squirming around and wouldn’t get up, not allowing him to cuff her by sticking her arms underneath. If he grabbed her arm she would accused him of inappropriate touching so that’s why he asked for female back up. And he does feel that she was involved in prostitution then and probably now, the restaurant is adjacent to two motels.

Fascinating, hmm?

Sure we have gone out before and Hubby recognized others he had arrested, after all we still live in the same county where he had been a deputy for nearly a dozen years.

But none as flamboyant as this gal was or cliché, she looked as she was definitely, ‘working girl’.  

Moving on…

Today our darling canine companion and little love went for his beauty treatment, it had been eleven weeks! Here are his before and after PICS:

Does his after make him look thinner? I think it sure does!

On that silly but true note, so the next time you feel a bit larger than usual, get a haircut, and allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all you 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 THIS JUST IN: OUR FIRST TROPICAL STORM FOR THIS YEAR WAS NAMED, ANDREA, AND WE HERE, IN PORT CHARLOTTE FLORIDA, ARE UNDER A TROPICAL STORM WARNING! PRAY PLEASE!

Less meds, less weight gain?

I know that there was a discussion somewhere with people talking about gaining weight with their Multiple Sclerosis.

And what I saw, since it was written was my theory was proven, but not really.

I blamed my tremendous weight gain on the medications that I have been taking for Multiple Sclerosis as well as all my other ills and of course my quitting smoking in 2006 when always previously I would go back to smoking after gaining the weight several times that is always that same fifty pounds. Since I blamed my tremendous weight gain these last few years on the medications that I have been taking and of course my quitting smoking in 2006 for the additional unheard of before amount… in the six previous times I did quit for as long as six months, one time… This last time though with a TIA on my MRI made me not go back. To lose the fifty pounds each and every time I would exercise or go to some kind of weight-loss program or both after that is how I would have to lose it once again! But I did try that in the beginning and neither worked this time. There was a period for a few years that I didn’t try to lose the weight years ago before being diagnosed with anything and gave up but did smoke, but still I was never this big, this time fifty plus weight, and so I was determined to find the cause like all other ills and yes, since now I am obese, but thank G-d I no longer smoke, WHEW! Now I will only die from obesity and of course all these other ills that have been plaguing me these last several years… but at least I don’t smoke thank heavens!

The conversation I read somewhere was that many who were on medications not unlike me, ballooned, gaining seventy pounds and some only fifty, and also the ones who did not take medications also even just using natural ways of taking care of their symptoms they also gained a lot of weight, and it appeared that some were still mobile and active.

So in conclusion, Oprah would be sooooooooo happy, since I received my AHA moment, and it appears to me the only constant was that we all have Multiple Sclerosis!

And so while other ills ravish your body and make you look as ill as you feel, we get accused of being slovenly and lazy and not ill at all and all other names due to our weight gain! NOT FAIR! WE ARE VERY SICK TOO!

Is it just me again?

Am I the only one getting what this indicates?

Perhaps some doctors might interject here?

Metabolically it appears that along with the demyelination of our spinal cord and brain, stripping them like electrical wires gone bad, we have metabolisms that turn sloth-like, thus also causing the extreme exhaustion that many of us have?

Now, if we could boost our metabolism somehow… we might get rid of one or two of the many symptoms that we own, but would prefer to rent, nah, sell off, yep, that’s the ticket!

But not to anyone we know or care about, or damn, where can we dump them?

Like a bad seed, ills are not something we would wish on our worst enemy!

Oh wait, nah… not supposed to hate.

Moving on…

Did you know that when you send a nice letter to a company that sometimes they reward you, small rewards… well they do!

I think that I have mentioned that I do enjoy spicy pickles, to the point of almost being considered an addiction.

Well, the company that makes this scrumptious delight is Mt. Olive out of North Carolina that I love and devour daily, well not daily, but as often as we have them… which is pretty regular. Any-who, I wrote to them on their site telling them how I felt and they sent me a lovely letter and three dollar off coupons, good on any of their products; I do enjoy their jalapeños too. I have complained to companies and notified them about damaged products and each has given exemplary responses with replacements when informed, and so when you have something nice to say it is also refreshing to get good feedback too.

No matter what, as a consumer, it is our job to let businesses know when they do right or need to improve.

Hubby received undies from Haines when we reported the elastic didn’t hold up, we received new knives from Farberware when they broke, since they are warranted for life, our kitchen faucet was replaced by American Standard, when its finish didn’t hold up.

Even the small clip on this computer desk that broke was replaced for free by the company who made it for Christopher Lowell that is the designer.

Businesses on the whole are decent and try to make us consumers happy and that is a very good thing, so don’t be shy if you believe that your product isn’t up to snuff go to the manufacturer and see if they can make good on their object of your desire and therefore their reputation and all will continue to be a wonderful thing to tell others about like I have done here…!

On that note of different tweets to all you tweeters out there, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all of your blessings and to share all of your overages with you know who and we will too!

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

We have rain!

Brains are like rains… go with me here… sometimes they run dry, but than they trickle with ideas and sometimes they gush and won’t shut off!

Get it?

Now I do too.

We have been having the on again off again flushing of the impurities out of the air from our rain, which here in Florida, is not an issue, dirty smutch, not here at all, since our air is considered quite clear and clean all year long!

Actually, some of the cleanest and clearest in the whole country; I am proud to say!

Last night we had an incident, a flood in our laundry room, due to the hose from our washer bursting! Fortunately, that room butts up to the garage and the floor is slightly slanted downward towards the garage, but the door is very tight there and so until Hubby shut the main off and opened the door it did not flow down onto the garage floor instead of the foyer or living room, two of the rooms that surround it.

You see, that was originally an outside entry laundry from what was once our carport now our garage, for nearly fourteen years. In a way the fact that I asked Hubby to check the wall to verify it was not a load bearing one before he cut through it way back then.

He did make a lovely door directly across from our entrance adjacent to our foyer, at that time it was a wooden louver that would stay ajar for our cats Mandy and Casey get to their litter box that was in there. As long as we had cats we had litter boxes tucked away in our laundry rooms…Today, it has a lovely raised panel six light door with a brass handle that is closed all of the time since our last cat passed away sadly, in 2010.

Any-who, Hubby thankfully repaired the hose with another he just happened to have a spare, my darling pack-rat!

He used the wet dry vac to dry things up and bleach after to prevent mold and all is well once again, hooray!

I asked if this could have been a slow leak that we didn’t notice for that extra water use and he assured me no since we would have noticed it, the room is small with a stackable washer/dryer set and all the cabinets are set tightly around the whole shebang. When we had our loving four-footed fury felines we had a door that was circular built into the cabinet for the cats to enter their litter for odor control and privacy, ha! (That door too was replaced with a solid one after the kitties were all gone…)

Thankfully all floors are ceramic tile and so all that water did was make it nicely clean.

Moving on…

Today was gym/rehab day and yes the process has continued with my additional days, not additional reps yet.

I do believe that will eventually come to pass in the future.

Amazingly, I was able to go today, my back and hips and legs have been giving out on me all day long… in fact a few times I tried to get up to use my walker to move from here to there as I do at home…and I could not… but this was even before I left, but my determination caused me to go even so.

I tell you, when I set my mind to do something, as long as nothing gets in my way, I get it all done!

My two new blouses that I showed the other day were looking very large in that picture, but for me they were actually a size smaller than what I have been wearing and the heron one I wore today with my Kaki slacks and I felt oh so cute!

Who knows if I looked that way to others, but how you feel, exudes how you look to others I do believe, a matter of confidence, I think.

And it did prove to have people speak with us and we all seemed to be there for the good and one woman even said that “you are doing good”, to me and I said back to her, that we all are, since we are all here! With a great big smile! Why not they are usually contagious and that is the one thing we should all spread our happy faces!

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

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

Holiday long gone, until the next...

Have you ever wondered why the national Network TV stations allow other programming to take them over on the weekend?

We all know that ESPN has its own station, or do they?

Not having cable for over nineteen years now, I really don’t know for sure anymore.

I do recall in the old days that they did, but it appears they might need more room for their games, NASCAR to be shown to the masses? Since they are on all my stations! ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX.

At least it seems that way.

Don’t get me wrong, I too enjoy watching a game/auto race or two, but not when all my network programming, as well as the obscure channels too has games and NASCAR on!

Come on, is it too difficult to have some movies or I don’t know non-cable news on, I would prefer a great cable one though? I do watch some online.

It appears that on Saturday it is not only game face day, but repeat the shows day! And Sunday is only slightly better.

Are the networks losing that much money?

It does seem like it when they cannot afford to buy new stuff, PBS has fund raisers maybe they should too?

I’m not saying that I would donate; but I really thought they made most of their money from the advertisers paying them to run those commercials?

And that’s another thing… PBS has commercials, contrary to what they say, not during the actual program, but between shows, hmm? So do rental movies too! Not just other movie trailers, selling other products too.

Can’t fool me!

Moving on…

Last night, I chose for us to watch our rental and Hubby agreed. The Impossible, I felt it apropos with all the horrid weather of killing tornadoes and yesterday being the beginning of our Hurricane Season and all. And yes, it did appear to be quite impossible and if it wasn’t a true story it would not be believable at all! Amazing and a wonderful life lesson for us to never ever give up, hope sometimes is all we have left and that alone can at times be all you need miraculously.

Uplifting and frightening, but useful to know the best way to handle adversity by helping others; as oddly enough I have said many a time.

All in all, a must see, for anyone going through a horrendous experience or just living life daily with its inevitable ups and downs.

We still have Life of Pi left that we have not watched yet; we are so bad about not watching them as often as we should and me complaining about programming. Well, Hubby doesn’t believe movies that we rent should be watched in the daytime or at least he always did before.

Although, on a rainy day, when the pickens have been slim he has acquiesced, and we have watched one or two in the past.

Seems silly to be discussing viewing pleasures, while I listen to the news on in the living room off to my left about the death toll rising due to those tornadoes and flooding in our heartland; shame on me!

Hate that theory of out of sight out of mind.

But mini mind vacations are good as a coping mechanism.

From the people who dealt with Hurricane Sandy, up and down the east coast, specifically NJ and NY, to Sandy Hook elementary those deaths of all those children to Boston’s bombing with more deaths and maiming, to the Moore OK devastation with more deaths to more recent tornadoes that have claimed more lives with flooding now too in all those states; Arkansas as well as Texas...

Life is overwhelming and the year isn’t even over yet…and our hearts and prayers are always with them all!

Too much and way too many suffering as always it happens, on and on, and on…

And so a fear comes over me, with the scary predictions that again seem to be our fate with our Hurricane Season now?

I sure hope not!

We must all figure out how to survive and never ever give up.

Illness is a daily fight and so is it to not give up on anything!

On that note with a bit more hope and love and concern for all who were mentioned and if I have forgotten anyone please forgive and allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly to 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 hope that in days to come that you too can be only concerned with what is showing or not showing on your TV! And I pray that that should be your only worry!

First day of Hurricane Season....And about a month ago there was a problem, an anomaly with our city water system...

And due to us utilizing our minimal, but efficient rain barrels of 110 gallons that refill frequently not always due to rain, but humidity too, for our gardens; it was highly unlikely that we actually used nine thousand gallons in one month of the city water, since our usual usage is anywhere from 4-5K a month, without a leak or a bad meter or a theft!

The mystery, as of yet has not been resolved but Hubby has been keeping track this month, since with evaporation of the pool and even the pond they both need periodic filling for their filtering systems to work properly.

And rain water does have some imperfections that could not do well with the fish or the pool filters. But that is why Hubby this month checked the meter when he filled both and not even five hundred gallons were used, a fraction of that!

So now we are wondering where four thousand gallons could have gone…and of course we were charged for them and so I had called the Charlotte County Utilities when our bill went up over thirty-seven dollars in one month to over $129, when it has been around $92 a month with the clearly four or so more additional thousand adding up! And the $92 is for using five thousand, $82 is for four thousand and on and on …and it is also for our sewers, but ridiculous! We have two bathrooms and a kitchen too… and yes we wash dishes even with our dishwasher, but we would run out of dishes with just the two of us! Yes, we tried to use the dishwasher with just us, but without the boys here it never fills up and we ended up washing them anyway…Yes, Florida does have very high water charges, but in the good, we have lower home taxes than NJ.

Hubby having worked as a apprentice plumber while going through college, in all our forty-two years of marriage have never had to call a plumber, why he even installed several new and renovated bathrooms over the years, one of his many jobs, but he checked for leaks from our outdoor faucet’s as well as our bathrooms and even our meter itself, but to this day, a month later, it remains a mystery! Although, my paranoia has told me some one stole the gallons when we went out! And sure it is possible; some have had to put locks on their outdoor faucets!

And PS last month’s use was for 30 days and this month is for thirty too, according to when they read, not the days in the month, okay and he checked since the number is on the bills and of course on the meter too and this month, as before, it shows that we used just between four and five thousand gallons!

So of course I called when we received the bill last month, and tried to explain to the woman, Sue, that we have never used that much water in one month, but at that time she was adamant and I was too, and so we butted heads. I suggested that they were gouging us and that we have lived in this home for nearly fifteen years and we know how much just the two of us use!

Sprint ahead to this past week, I was still thinking about the ridiculousness of the whole thing that if I didn’t follow-up they would get away with just thinking we accepted the wrong amount being billed, (although I had paid it since it was due then), to us for WE DID NOT USE THOSE NINE THOUSAND GALLONS, perhaps half, more than likely, but not all of them!

And we pay our bills like clockwork so it was not two months of bills put together. The month before was for the half of that amount of usage! I do keep very good records.

This time I told her immediately who I was and asked her nicely to bring up our account and she did and saw that in fact we had never used that much! AHA! The most was once around six, I thought maybe that was when we filled the pool, the date was right.

And so she agreed that we could fill out a form online that I did to dispute the amount, an ‘owner adjustment request’ form. And it was mailed out Friday, since our conversation transpired on Thursday.

We should be entitled to a bit of a refund she suggested… we will see what we will see.

Moving on…

Today, is the first day of our Hurricane Season 2013, which as you all know, runs from June first through to November thirtieth.

The names will be: Andrea, Barry, Chantal, Dorian, Erin, Fernand, Gabrielle, Humberto, Ingrid, Jerry, Karen, Lorenzo, Melissa, Nestor, Olga, Pablo, Rebekah, Sebastien, Tanya, Van and Wendy.

“For the six-month hurricane season, which begins June 1, NOAA’s Atlantic Hurricane Season Outlook says there is a 70 percent likelihood of 13 to 20 named storms (winds of 39 mph or higher), of which 7 to 11 could become hurricanes (winds of 74 mph or higher), including 3 to 6 major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of 111 mph or higher).

These ranges are well above the seasonal average of 12 named storms, 6 hurricanes and 3 major hurricanes.”

Thanks to NOAA: http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2013/20130523_hurricaneoutlook_atlantic.html

Scary!

 But we are prepared, as prepared as any of us can be… and so PRAY!

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

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

Guy Harvey, repeat how sweet, and tailored to suite you...

I will explain the one in the middle first, since it is oh so simple… my gym/rehab day went as it should with my sweet repeats of the reps that I am doing.

Lastly, the tailored to suite our guest-room full sized bed, it has the white tailored skirt that I had so had wanted to go with its white bedding ensemble, light weight scalloped Matelasse coverlet and shams that I put on not too long ago for the summery look from Bed Bath and Beyond with my 20% off quite some time ago. Their bed skirt, at the time, I do believe was more than I wanted to spend… and when I went back online I didn’t see it there; and so I Googled it and to my surprise Target had the exact one I imagined, actually shown in the picture with the coverlet, but at all different price points from wicked cheap to more expensive and all on sale, mine was only $14.23, including tax!

Then we caught another quickie lunch at the Food Court, since we were heading to Beall’s for me to spend the rest of my gift card and they had 30% off today too. This time we ate at Subway, I had a salad and Hubby had a cheese steak, both happy with our waters with us.

Since I had determined three slacks at this size were plenty for working out, black, navy and Kaki. I have decided to mix it up with blouses, and I have gotten them from all different locales and price points, even from the thrift store, but mostly the Beall’s Outlet but now a total of three from Beall’s with my gift card, two just today which polished it off although they were very good blouses at $32 each, my out of pocket was $11.29.

You see, they were Guy Harvey’s painted blouses: And with your purchase a donation is made to the Guy Harvey Ocean Foundation (GHOF) with every Guy Harvey sportswear item. Each year more than $200,000 is collected for the GHOF to support marine research efforts.

http://www.natureartists.com/artists/artist_biography.asp?ArtistID=511

And when I lose the weight I do believe they will make gorgeous pillows!

And my designs are one of fish and the other of herons as you see above, in spite of herons eating and trying again and again to eat our pond fish, we have replaced them several times… I do love them. Why we have one in our dinette a mural by the Robins

and two in the etched glass in our kitchen cabinets

as well as one on our back door! 

And oh yes, even a statue one on top of our breakfront/entertainment center in the living- room.

On that note of once again that a picture is worth a thousand words or in my case, at least five hundred... allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you to kindly count all your blessings and share those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

PS If you look through the back door you will also notice in our backyard the dual herons holding up our bird bath, a gift from number one son about fourteen years ago, Geez, I almost forgot! Actually I did!