Friday, July 26, 2013

Five Minute Friday - Broken


It's time for the "Five Minute Friday" blogging post. The inspiration comes from Lisa Jo Baker


What you do is set your timer for five minutes and write whatever you want according to the prompt Lisa places on her blog every Friday. Then you go back, link your blog and give support to those who posted before you. And, we connect on Twitter with #FiveMinuteFriday.

Ready.
Set.
Go.


Broken.

Broken. The link between my brain and my fingers so that I can write is broken. I don't know exactly when it happened. I think it had something to do with the ECT treatments I had. But, I no longer have that passion and drive to sit and write every day and create novels. 

I'm broken.

Can I be fixed? I don't know. Do I want to be fixed? I can't honestly answer that question either. I'm liking the way my days are now, no pressures to write. No deadlines to meet. No angst in attempting to push my characters beyond their breaking point. 

I'm living a very well balanced life right now. Maybe I'm not broken after all. Maybe this is how a balanced life for me works. Life is good. I'm under little stress. I am happy. My hubby is happy. My pets are happy. It is what it is. 

I'm not broken. I've just been bent into a new direction.

I'm following a new path. A new road.

STOP.









Thursday, July 18, 2013

Is it Dementia or Aging? - Humorous Post




This was sent to me in an e-mail with no information about the original author. So, I'm sharing it with you.

ARE WE THE ONES WHO ARE AGING???
 
 
ONE

Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets.

I asked for a half dozen nuggets.

'We don't have half dozen nuggets,' said the
teenager at the counter.

'You don't?' I replied.

'We only have six, nine, or twelve,' was the reply.

'So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?'

'That's right.'

So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets


(Unbelievable but sadly true . . . )

(Must have been the same one I asked for sweetener, and she said they didn't have
any, only Splenda and Sugar.)

TWO

I was checking out at the local Wal-Mart with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine.  I picked up one of those 'dividers' that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed.
 
After the girl had scanned all of my items,
she picked up the 'divider', looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it.

Not finding the bar code, she said to me, 'Do 
you know how much this is?'

I said to her 'I've changed my mind; I don't
think I'll buy that today.'

She said 'OK,' and I paid her for the things
and left.

She had no clue to what had just happened.

(But the lady behind me had a big smirk on her face as I left)


THREE

A woman at work was seen putting a credit card into her floppy drive and pulling it out very quickly.

When I inquired as to what she was doing,
she said she was shopping on the Internet and they kept asking for a credit card number, so she was using the ATM 'thingy.'
 
(Keep shuddering!!!)

FOUR

I recently saw a distraught young lady
weeping beside her car. 'Do you need some help?' I asked.  She replied, 'I knew I should have replaced the  battery to this remote door unlocker.  Now I can't get into my car. Do you think they (pointing to a distant convenience store) would have a battery to fit this?'

'Hmmm, I don't know.  Do you have an alarm, 
too?' I asked.

'No, just this remote thingy,' she answered, handing it and the car keys to me.  As I took 
the key and manually unlocked the door, I replied, 'Why don't you drive over there and check about the batteries. It's a long walk...'


PLEASE just lay down before you hurt
yourself!!!

FIVE
Several years ago, we had an Intern who was none too swift.  One day she was typing and turned to a Secretary and said, 'I'm almost out of typing paper.  What do I do?'  'Just use paper from the photocopier', the secretary told her.  With that, the intern took her last remaining blank piece of paper, put it on the photocopier and proceeded to make five 'blank' copies.

Brunette, by the way!!!

SIX

A mother calls 911 very worried asking the dispatcher if she needs to take her kid to the Emergency Room, the kid had eaten ants. The dispatcher tells her to give the kid some Benadryl and he should be fine.  The mother says, 'I just gave him some ant killer......'

Dispatcher: 'Rush him in to the Emergency 
Room right now!'


Life is tough.  It's even tougher if you're
stupid!!! 
 
Someone had to remind me, so I'm
reminding you too.  Don't laugh . . . it is
all true . . . 

Perks of reaching 50 or being over 60 and
heading towards 70!

01.   
Kidnappers are not very interested in
you.

02.
 In a hostage situation you are likely to
be released first.

03.
 No one expects you to run -- anywhere.

04.
 People call at 9 PM and ask, "Did I wake you?"

05.
 People no longer view you as a
hypochondriac.

06.
 There is nothing left to learn the hard
way.

07.
 Things you buy now won't wear out.

08.
 You can eat supper at 5 PM.

09.
 You can live without sex but not your
glasses.

10.
 You get into heated arguments about
pension plans.

11.
 You no longer think of speed limits as
a challenge.
 
12. You quit trying to hold your stomach
in no matter who walks into the room.

13.
 You sing along with elevator music.

14.
 Your eyes won't get much worse.

15
. Your investment in health insurance
is finally beginning to pay off.

16.
 Your joints are more accurate
meteorologists than the national weather
service.

17.
Your secrets are safe with your friends
because they can't remember them either.

18.
 Your supply of brain cells is finally
down to manageable size!!!!

19.
 You can't remember who sent you this
list.

20. And you notice these are all in BIG
PRINT for your convenience!!!

Forward this to everyone you can
remember right now!!!!

Never, under any circumstances, take a
sleeping pill and a laxative on the same
night!
Now that you've had your laugh for the day go out and share that smile!

Friday, July 05, 2013

Vacations and Pictures



You asked for them. Here they are. Pictures. Lots of pictures. And, I'm only going to show you a few. I'll provide you with a link where you can look at all the pictures we "deemed" fit to post on our website.





First the grandchildren.









Here is Kasey Belle. My first granddaughter.








Next are pictures of my son, Kyle. His wife, Trish and my grandson, Dominik and granddaughter, Kylie.


Now onto the sights we saw during our drive from Tucson, AZ to Buffalo, WY.

Here we are in SE Utah on our way to Monument Valley.

The mountain structures and formations were amazing. I couldn't wait to see what Monument Valley looked like.


This crow made the perfect subject for the backdrop of the Monument Valley peaks.

The sights were amazing.


?Have you seen anything so gorgeous in your life

From Monument Valley we headed to Arches National Park. Lots of hiking there to get to see the natural arches formed by the elements.





Next we went to 9 Mile Canyon. Here we found petroglyphs. Some were only a few hundred years old, others were thousands of years old.

This image showed warriors and the great number of big horn sheep they killed.

It was sad to see that some of the petroglyphs were marred by graffiti. 


Our next day's adventure was Yellowstone National Park. Wow. What an adventure that day was. We started out early in the morning looking to Upper Mesa Falls and finished with a drive through the wilderness.






We saw all kinds of geysers. Some in the form of pools. Others steam vents. Some just globs of hot mud. Others were full on gushers.











Old Faithful was still somewhat "faithful" and exploded within the 10 minutes give or take of its estimated time.


We saw Elk. 

And more Elk.


Another waterfall. Tower Falls.

And, the crowning glory of what I wanted to see. Bison. Yay.


Yellowstone is absolutely gorgeous. And it's hard to believe it's as pristine as it is.



If you want to see more great pictures other than the ones shown here, visit the following website.


And, this I promise is the last of my "Vacation" blog posts. 


Tuesday, July 02, 2013

Vacations There and Back Again

It's nice to get away but it's so much nicer to come home. Thank God we are home. I wasn't sure if that was going to be a reality at one point while I stood at the Casper Airport Delta ticket counter. I originally had planned to come home on Wednesday, July 3rd while my husband due to work issues would return home on Monday, July 1st. However, I had finished my vacation. I was done. I missed home. I missed my dog, Jack. And I was tired of living in hotels. So, I called Delta to change my reservation from Wednesday to Monday, to coincide with my hubby's return and so that we could sit together. The customer service person who "helped" me on the telephone was of no help at all. Come to find out, after I received confirmation, I was booked on entirely different flights returning to Florida.

So, Sunday night, we drove to Casper, WY from Buffalo to spend yet our final night in a hotel so that we'd be close to the airport and didn't have to drive at 2:30 am to get there. The airport was 110 miles plus from Buffalo, WY where we were visiting family.

We dropped our rental off (boy did it need a bath!) and headed for the Delta ticket counter. Little did the unsuspecting ticket agent realize that when he asked if he could help me what kind of situation I was going to give him.

He clicked away at his terminal. Clicked some more. And some more. Not saying a word for twenty minutes. My hubby and I looked at each other wondering if we were getting helped at all. Then the ticket agent stepped away and asked for additional help. Came back and clicked some more and some more and some more. I was so anxious by then, I had to ask him if he was making any progress and if he could tell me what he was doing. He replied that he was booking me on my hubby's flight and had to make the changes so that we could sit together.

Sheesh. Was that so difficult to communicate while we stood their waiting?

Finally. Finally after a good forty minutes at the Delta counter, little Codee the ticket agent, worked his magic and pulled it off. He got me on my hubby's flights and we had adjacent seats. Yay! Go Codee.

So, we flew from Casper, WY to Salt Lake City, UT, to Minneapolis, MN to Tampa, FL. A long way around the states to get home, but we did. And were we so happy when we finally pulled into our driveway. The cab driver was a sweetheart and helped us carry our luggage to the house in the pouring rain.

That was yesterday. Today, I slept in. In my own bed. In my own room. Cuddled to my own pillows. Then, I made the trip to Bailey's vet to pick him up from boarding. He chirped and purred and tweeted his hello's and showed me with kisses how happy he was to see me.

Getting him settled at home was easy and before I knew it, it was time to pick up Jack. The doctors had to draw some blood this morning, so I couldn't pick him up until the afternoon. He need a blood panel and thyroid tests done, as well as a urinalysis. Seems there might be some issues. We'll get the results tomorrow.

When they brought him from the back to me up front he was so excited and I was so happy to see him I don't know who was happier. He jumped into my arms and we hugged it out. I was covered in white fur. I was so worried about him being away from us for so long. He did have a bit of "cage nose" where he rubbed it on his kennel. It should heal quickly.


What awaits me tomorrow? Piles of dirty laundry. And going through all the hundreds and hundreds of pictures we took. We'll have to make a website for them. So much work. I hope you enjoyed the photos I did post while we were away. I hope we didn't bore you too much.

I don't even care about the laundry or website work. I'm just so glad to be home.