Heck, so sorry snow for you all Peeps!

Snow looks so pretty coming down, and at times I nearly miss it… but then I remind myself of how cold it truly has to be to snow, hovering at thirty-two degrees brr and that you have to shovel it or hire someone or ask someone …and besides it only looks good for the first day or two, after that between cities trying to get rid of it with dirty trucks with plows the snow turns black and cut off your driveway exit or entrance, never mind what the doggies do to it, mellow yellow…

NAH whenever I “think” I miss it I recall all that!

But then I remember the sledding and snowball fights and pushing it off the frozen ponds to skate and I get slightly nostalgic…but then I remember the worst of it and I am fine with my choice of becoming a Florida person all those years ago, Ta da!

I was a northerner for thirty-six years and only a southerner for these last nearly twenty-nine, and yep I like it better, I surely do!

Although, my heart goes out to my old school chums and friends and family having to contend with what the meteorologists have predicted to be quite a BLIZZARD starting tonight with heavy winds and two to three feet of snow!

Ah snow days and off from school, another fond memory of why I did love it when it snowed as a child… but over in the Second City AKA Chicago land it has been reported that they are considering doing away with “Snow Days”, by cyber sending the children their school assignments to continue to keep up with all their classwork… uh oh!

No more wearing those PJs inside out to make it snow, anyway it only worked half the time,  HA!

And so good for Chicago trying to make school a priority and those children will be better for it; albeit what if the power goes down or the wifi towers or however they plan on sending those little ones their lessons might hit a glitch, so kiddies get those sled and skates ready, it could happen, a true fun/break could ensue, ya know?

Lastly ole buddies up northern way be safe and careful and stay warm as you can for we are getting up there in all our ages and ice is a hazard more so these days than not, and driving should be minimized, better not at all, and wood should be chopped for those fireplaces, just in case and food stocked up and yes all gizmos in the tech realm should be charged… but remember those icicles can take down wires or even some towers come down, and just make sure you have alternate ways to communicate…that ‘s all…I'm saying.

And most of all know that we too here in chilly Florida might not be having snow, but it has not reached our usual normal weather that we call FLORIDA, we too are cold, and it was in the high forties last night and low seventies today here in Southwest Florida, can you imagine brr too?

But seriously folks our hearts and prayers go out to all of you and please stay warm and safe that’s all…

And know that we all care here in the Sunshine State… for we once were you… on that note of sincerity and concern, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Dancing as fast as I can...

Figuratively or actually; what do you believe?

In my case both.

Oh how I used to love to dance, in fact I took ballet for a dozen years with, tap, toe and jazz acrobatics/now called gymnastics, each for a while too, and yes I loved them all!

I can recall my one dance teacher even teaching us ballroom with boys and that was for a few months. I had started this all before the age of four with three teachers over those many years.

We were young and flexible and oh so capable and in my case hammy at most all recitals.

These days I have been known to dance with the dogs, yep our family pet members and they seem to enjoy it too…

Pacing oneself is a job in itself too.

And today I have gone beyond my limit.

I walked, oh did I walk… from a parking spot way out in Oshkosh by Gosh! (Actually at Fishville AKA Fisherman’s Village; they were quite busy with foreigners from all over the map!) We had trouble finding a handicap spot, but I proved that I did not need one, ha!

Hubby clocked the distance after at one tenth of a mile away from their entrance, not too bad I suppose, but for me it marked the beginning of the journey; once reached we had continued to walk more and then of course back again…

After there we went over to our Publix to yes, grocery shop again and this time for our Number One Son arriving this Monday with a rented Uhaul with all the items we will be storing for him here.

He says he will be staying two days, but not really since the truck has to be back by four on Tuesday and he lives a few hours from here…His home’s closing is February 5th.

The marinas that he has been looking at are slightly closer to where we live but still close enough to his work, but south instead of north of it where his home is/was.

Also now once all is said and done he will be able to spend more time with us!

That’s too sweet!

So with all the stuff I had to pick up to celebrate his arrival and to feed that extra mouth I once again walked with the shopping cart and bought all that we needed alone while Hubby sat/napped with Gus in our car, as he said, just a phone call away. I am extremely exhausted right now and tried a little nap this afternoon... hope I am not overdoing, just pushing.

We will be barbecuing so what I bought was a nice steak for the grill and extra baking potatoes and salad stuff, plus sandwich items and appropriate breads. You see, we have still enough breakfast foods, such as eggs and juice etc left so they were not needed in addition too.

Ironically on Number One’s acre of land he also kept chickens in a very nice coop for their eggs, they too have been farmed out, get it? HA!

At forty-something and not married but involved with a woman who has no concerns about this newest adventure of our son’s so we are accepting too, what else can we do?

Not that we shouldn't, sure now is his chance to perhaps on his extensive vacations that he has racked up at a job that he has been working at for nearly twenty years take off with that sail boat on the near or far away seas… I say why not!

But as a Mom I worry, Dad not so much but a little…we want him to know that we respect his judgment especially at his age we should…

Sadly, my parents were both gone by the time I was thirty-five, Mom when I was just thirty-one and Dad a couple of months before I turned thirty-six, so I don’t know what my responsibility is to him for an opinion. I suppose none is the best way to go, only support him as we are doing. That is why I said if he ever wants anything back he is storing with us and he moves back into a land home he will have some beginning stuff and he assured us that he is not putting all his apples in one basket financially and that  is more than okay! Relief.

Parents teach at times when we don’t even realize it, by example, and all I can say is that our son is very capable and will be able to accomplish all that he chooses in life!

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

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

Daily routine or maybe not?

You wake up; very lucky.

You eat your breakfast, again oh so very lucky.

You shower and change, boy lucky to have warm/hot water and city utility approved clean-wise; again extremely lucky.

You are now dressed in clothes that you had bought at a local store not that long ago, wow luck she’s with me all the way!

You and your significant other with your four legged pal hop in your brand new car and head for the rehab/gym, someone pinch me now, and you realize not everyone has that choice and so boy are you lucky or what?

Even after telling your better half that we have too many leftovers at home to eat out again, what this is truly lucky too; must we be reminded of how lucky we are????

YES!

Some of us must.

Today we received an envelope about our adoptee’s past from the Canine Castaways Organization info. From the veterinarian that first saw Gaston then, Gus now in Collier County Florida with Animal Control, with his original picture…when he was found...

 and this is Gus today, see lucky!

In that above picture he could have been anyone of those puppies you see in those very sad commercials about dogs being mistreated or tossed out, it breaks my heart to see what he went through…!

If you have the room and the love to take in a pup from anyone of the too many shelters where you live consider that please before a breeder or puppy mill puppy!

There are so many rescue organizations nationally and internationally of even “purebred” pups, just Google them if you must.

We all need to realize that there are way too many needing homes and so horribly many are euthanized just because there is no home for them. Although today there are more no-kill shelters than ever before and they need for all responsible pet owners to spay or neuter their loving pets, if you want more than one or even a puppy go to the shelters first or rescues people!

Make it so that some day all pets have loving homes and the shelters are empty!

On this note of how hope can help with love, food, medical care, a roof over your head and a warm bath … allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and kindly ask you all to count all your blessings and share yes share all those overages with you know who and we will too!

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

Or...

Do nothing.

Yesterday’s blog told of a plot to get even, or at the very least show how ornery I can be too, who moi?

But of course; that is with dealing with Florida makes me oh so Blue insurance company re: all about their need for their silly penny!

(Suggested reading to catch up: last night’s blog; that is if not a nightly reader, I’m just saying... You know me with assuming anything.)

Any-who, I had said that now they have two one penny additions to my month’s premium, making it an overpayment by one cent!

So to be difficult I would for the next five month’s payments round up the price of my premium to see if they would be as good as they were with a negative penny amount of an overage causing their accounting department to be upset and send me a check for the whole sixty-six cents like they had me do for two separate penny payments since they said they had NOT received the first one! (After those months I will be on Medicare, different ballgame, I hope.)

All this due to a penny less from my nearly five hundred dollar a month premium being short that freaking PENNY,  and me being told that was why my account was considered in delinquency!

Is it me?

Or them?

I vote for them.

Anyway, my decision to give them MORE than I owe them has taken a second thought turn in my mind… not because I would be in dire straights without my sixty-six cents if they never paid it; of course NOT! Thankfully!

But because I would be lowering myself to their stupidity level demanding a check back for that amount, especially because I would be doing it on purpose, not by accident, after all they were familiar with me paying them for a year prior to this incident and that premium was nearly one hundred dollars more a month than this year’s new one that is one of the many reasons I am so annoyed, oh all right very angry!

So I am torn should I or shouldn’t I?

Stay tuned…

Moving on…

Hubby has been working feverishly on the lift for the boat and he is mostly done and so today he washed down the boat which has been temporarily for months been living on our extended driveway, soon it will be put back on its lift very very soon, HOORAY!

Oops and I did it again, another non-busy day of laziness for me, not a good thing, but nice just the same.

I played some Solitaire, a lot of Solitaire, and watched my soap and took a nap and made a great three fish chowder from scratch for supper, mmm, mmm GOOD!

I so love making soups.

Gus Update: His behavior is becoming mellower and he is proving to be quite intelligent and loving.

He is also quite playful and has learned to “stay” admirably well these last few weeks. Truly important when either of us go out the front door.

He is very polite and does not open ajar doors the rest of the way.

We are considering teaching him to open them the rest of the way, which can become useful in some emergencies.

He did something remarkable today, he kept scratching at the dishwasher as if there was something wrong and so Hubby opened it to show him that it was empty, but it was not, the drain had apparently not emptied the water in it and it was smelly! Neither of us could imagine how long that could have been like that.

It is possible our washing machine backed up into it, anyway after Hubby determined the water would go down without a problem, we ran dish detergent and bleach through the cycles with a hot dry too just to be safe. Later I checked and it was once again immaculate. If we hadn’t been made aware of the issue who knows what might have happened; mold perhaps or heaven knows what! It was already stinky when Hubby opened the door, but when the door was shut we did not smell it but Gus must have. (Shih Tzu's were trained to find mold, I read somewhere. That part of him was natural working I suspect.)

Mold is so dangerous and very unhealthy.

He also has the ability to remind us about things cooking on the stove that we have nearly forgotten, so dangerous, all great things for us to have back up with now that we are getting older, he was a very good idea for us to adopt and I do believe he is on his way to becoming a fine service dog/son!

On that note of spreading Gus news all around, allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and ask you all to kindly count all your blessings and share all your overages and we will too!

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

Taking a breath...

And release!

Sure the little annoyances in life can make you angry, but why?

One of many New Year’s resolutions many make is not to sweat the small stuff anymore.

Sure we all have at one time or another.

I know that I am guilty of doing that way too often.

Today, oddly enough that first penny I sent to Florida makes me oh so Blue unhealthy insurance company due to causing unnecessary stress to their clients was subtracted from our account, and yesterday they subtracted the emergency penny from our checking account one! Now they owe me a CHECK for that overage, but I am NOT done with them. After they received my new monthly payment on December 31 2014 of $494.86 for the January 1^st 2015 bill, and put me into delinquency for that penny or else to bring up my monthly premium up to $494.87 from that horrendous evil of me trying to gyp a multi billion dollar company out of their precious penny for an entire month. For shame for shame! Now they have two pennies, oh what will they do?

I say confuse the little do-gooders more with a plot and a plan; yes, evil thrives in this mind and body of the sick or is that sicko?

I will do as I had said and round up my next month’s premium to…$495.00, and see if I do that for the next five month, since after that I will be on Medicare, I will see if they will send me a check for the overages, Hmm? That should come out to sixty-five cents plus the penny originally sent 2X totaling and owing me a check for a whole sixty-six cents! We'll see how they like it? At least that will make it closer to a dollar than an effing stinking penny, true!

I am a kind and generous soul at heart, truly and willing to wait until I am ready to say ADIOS FLBL so cute in their minds?

F stands for “frankly I don’t give a damn” about “our customers”.

L “live for leaving” early from this damn phone that they make me answer when I don’t know anything to say except by rote or unreasonably without compassion.

B is for OH "BOTHER" I’m just "biding" my time until this Obamacare is shut down, hate these pre-existing cry babies.

That they have chronic ills or are dying or both damn aren’t we all…

L again is for OMG I am "lying" my heart out to shut these people up! I really could care less about their problems. If they had a brain in their head they wouldn’t have gotten sick without any decent insurance and now they expect us to pay their way…?

Just my subtle way of saying how I feel they have been treating me. Sure many are wondering why I went with them after the year I had with them… well, I had no one helping me and the clock was ticking so it was my bad, but I felt that by now that maybe just maybe they might know what they should be doing but boy was I so wrong! And again it's just for a few more months...

PS I still do not have a paper or email generated bill from them, although they did email me to tell me that they had received the penny! WOW!

I have no information tangible or otherwise, in my hands telling me what exactly my coverage is, it is a Gold account with a $3000 deductible for everything one time, but no breakdown on prescriptions, claims, doctors’ ect.… and it has been requested over and over again. PS Hubby has received that info from their Medicare dept., why not me?

Any-who, I am a person with enough time on my hands to see that whether we have no insurance with this new congress who wants it gone, sadly due to me being on Medicare in less than six months I will not be as likely to feel their wrath as so many others, and that is the sad part if there is no coverage for the masses like myself who were falling through the cracks due to preexisting or for so many other reasons…I will pray that people come together and think before they throw out the baby with the bath water. And yes that means getting rid of the whole thing, not literally throwing away any babies folks! They should tweak it and go over it with great care and save the good and fix the bad in my opinion, but we Americans who find ourselves in this precarious situation need some type of safety net and we have been tax payers in so many ways that many forget. From jobs to consumers to everything you can possibly think of, we are not all poor, although some are, and some are working poor, and others cannot work, so do not throw all reasonings into one basket, and find your compassion the next time you vote for a mostly heartless congress who has all their needs taken care of no matter what!

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

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

High finance and other fun things...not!

Nightly I write about anything I feel that I must and sometimes in doing this proves the commonality that we all share, on occasion, and at times… but not always, of course!

Years ago, I surmised that writing this type of blog might hit home with some who happen upon it in their journeys through searches on the Internet or by topics or words, and this has proven to be the case on a few of my chosen topics. Just by seeing old ones appearing as being accessed over and over again.

It is a good feeling to know that I have been read by the many, not millions but tens of thousands, which for an ordinary gal that is just; no make that more than fine with me.

My titles have been chosen carefully, at times to entice the readers, or to question their minds with what I might be wanting to provide for G rated entertainment…I have done everything from crafts and gardening to green ideas to travels to medicinal and ills and fun and exercise, even a few movie reviews. I have been musical in many choices, for that too is international. I have been politically biased and opinionated, not unlike you, but also loving to all peoples of every kind.

I have accepted my sharing of loss of loved ones, including four legged and feathered ones and anger at others who have hurt me to the quick.

And as far as consumers affairs go I am the voice of the little guy who might feel mistreated with big business and tries hard to have all issues resolved in the end, and they usually are, but not always…nobody is perfect, especially me.

The title tonight infers that some type or amount of money changed hands or was added into our account and yes it was.

Not an exorbitant amount, but a nice little bit, of less than ninety dollars.

We have a credit card that gives us rewards and every other month we have been collecting a tidy forty plus dollars by just using our card, for shopping you get 1% for anything, 2% for groceries, and 3% for gas, it’s Signature card with our bank.

And so we use it for everything!

Years ago we also went with a card that was meant to be used to help save for college and we took out that card way back in 2004 with Upromise, and percentages were taken out and saved over the many years and over the weekend we received an email notification for using this particular card that we had racked up a total of are you ready…$43.89! Yep in ten years, what????? They asked what we wanted to be done with it, and I let them know to send it to us and today we received it, quicker than I recall them saying the forty-five days it would take. Wow folks can you tell which is the better deal, hmm?

PS that college fund was started for grandchildren our children’s children and they do not have any still…at this rate it would have been for their grand-children’s children or their grand-children’s children, or perhaps none would be necessary by then; college tuition that is?

Any-who we took the check and so now we are that much richer financially, see high/low finance?!

Moving on…

Friday I was part of a three way, before you all go berserk on me; it was a three way phone conversation.

And it was between my bank and Florida makes Blue not that healthy since causing too much stress to me insurance company.

Do any of you remember that penny that was delinquent on my health insurance premium? I still have not received a paper bill that I had requested with the right amount and next month’s premium is due in a few weeks! I am rounding up next month's premium and every month thereafter until I go on Medicare! And I will request a check for my payment overages, hmm?

Well, anyway, I was told to call back in a few days to see if they had received it, and as of Friday they had not, in other words my account was considered delinquent still for ONE STINKING PENNY!

I had paid from my online bill pay account and I had the bank on the line stating that the check for the “PENNY” had been verified and mailed on January 7, two days before delivery stated on my bill pay account of 1-9-15!

Friday was the sixteenth and they still had not received it and that I was considered delinquent and unless I gave them immediate access to my savings or checking account to get the penny or it would continue to be considered delinquent! (Mind you there is a 30 day grace period on this insurance, what? And they were paid for January on December 31st and they did receive it then!)

Personally no one has access to our accounts to take anything out except Hubby and me and this particular company I have gained severe mistrust of over the last year and so why would I do that?

But in the end and after I hung up and angrily yelling that I did not want them to access any of my accounts with me dropping an “F” bomb, don’t worry I said "effing", not the word, but in severe anger! Now “they”, whoever “they” are, are saying cursing is a healthy outlet! So I got healthy and then hung up, but called back, due to my need to be getting a delivery of my Copaxone injectable medication that they had to pay for today and yes it arrived with no problems!

The UPS guy was very nice too and even put it on my walker seat and had me sign as he was supposed to do, and smiled and I thanked him and him me!

WOW! What a difference a month makes!

Last time it was delivered to my neighbor, dropped and run (It says on the box it is to be signed for), that is the delivery guy did it that way, not even waiting for a signature for injections that are refrigerated in a cooler!

Sometimes complaining works and it did; I had called the local office and the woman there said it was wrong and apologized and that it should have never happened and she said she would take care of it and she sure did!

I mean I have been receiving this medication now for going one five years, you would think they knew where we live and the proper procedure, true?

On that note that even my little world needs some tweaking sometimes, and yours too I suspect, so don’t be shy and speak your mind too, and allow me to be the very first to wish all of you a very happy good night and kindly ask all of you to count 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!

KING! From my original posting on January 17th 2011

Speaking My Mind is about: Tobi, who is a middle aged, no, oh all right a slightly over the hill woman with all the imperfections that go with that, and this concerns her daily life's perceptions and experiences.

Monday, January 17, 2011

King!

In a world where our surnames are determined by our heritage or in the case of us old fashioned women by our spouse’s family names; Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a man whose family had no idea that he would grow into his with such a worldwide dynamic of what the name stood for and that he would become a ‘King’ among men in the sense of his leadership, and bring to our family of men and women a legacy that any of us folks could be proud of from whence we came.
And so today we honor that man of our history who brought about a unification of all races to know that we as a unit of beings will be better at working and accepting one another and freedom should ring true for all.
A blessed person loved by all except for the one lunatic who cut him down way too soon in his prime of life.
Thankfully our children and grandchildren have been taught to continue Martin Luther King Jr.’s bequest of liberty for everyone no matter what the color of their skin.
I do believe that we have made quite a bit of progress on this forefront but have a ways to go, you see, we still hate too much here in this country and until that stops completely his words will not be fulfilled!
And so I beg of all Americans and all people of the world to listen closely to what this man’s words were, you can copy and paste this site: http://www.mlkonline.net/quotes.html for he knew what we all should do and felt we had the capacity to accomplish it all…and now more than ever we need to try harder!
Thank you Mr. King we all have much to thank you for!
His actual birthday was Saturday the fifteenth when he would have been eighty two years old.


On that note of keeping my public informed, ha! I would like to be the first to wish you all a happy good night to all and to all kindly count those blessings and share those overages and we will too!

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

PS: Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King would have been eighty-six this past January 15th.