Diabeticical

This being the last day of the year I thought that this day of all days deserves a post on the blog. New Years Eve is a time of reflecting and I have to be honest with you all, I am not all that jazzed about reflecting on the past year. Each year as take down the Christmas tree I place all the fragile ornaments in their holders/tubs/wrappings, usually the last thing to go is the angel at tree top. As I remove her I wonder to myself what will my life be like the next time I see her, lately I add to that wonderment the question, "will I even be around next Christmas?". I think that it is a legitimate question when you reach the half century mark and beyond, especially when I think to myself that my late husband was just 50 when he died. In a few short months I will be older then he ever was. He died just a week shy of his 51st birthday. That is a strange feeling since he was always older then me by 6 years. So my own sense of immortality is called to the forefront as I mar

The wild life in this swampy part of the world is quite amazing and there is rarely a week that goes by that I don't see something that makes me go "wow" and run to find the camera. Currently, we have a little red headed woodpecker ( think Woody) making what seems to be a nest in an old dead palm tree that happens to be center stage in the back yard. It appears to be a home that over the years either many woodpeckers have used or the same one winters here, and then I am assuming, in spring brings his/her little brood into the world. Lately when we take the doggies out for potty time most of the time, this little woodpecker is sitting cozy in his hole/nest and all that is visible are his/her little head and eyes closely monitoring us and the dogs. We are trying not to get too close to the nest so as not to scare him away forever and I have yet to get a decent picture of him/her. All day he spends working on the opening and cleaning out debris from the interior and, I b

I often wondered why a grouping of crows was called a murder, now I know. We seem to perhaps be the wintering ground for every North American Black Crow that exists within 10,000 sq miles and we all know what crows do best, they caw. and caw, and caw and caw and when they are not cawing randomly, they do it in unison to provide hours of listening pleasure. I am not kidding, I have to turn up the volume of the TV when they are soaring nearby. It might lead me to murdering a few crows if they don't move on in the near future. Oh and lets not forget they poop too. When I am outside and they blacken the skies I half expect one of two things to happen, either Tippi Hedren is going to jump out of the bushes and scream at me (re: The Birds), or a tripod is going to break through the trees and point its ray gun at me and disintegrate me ( War of the Worlds the most recent version with Dakota Fanning), of course Tom Cruise should be nearby if that happens, so maybe that is not such a bad t

Whelp, it is raining.....all day.....again.... and thats all I am gonna say about that.

I have driven in various parts of the country in my life, being 50 years old, having acquired my first license when I was just a month or two past my 16th birthday, and someone (a woman no less) who is a pretty good driver and actually likes driving, has given me the opportunity to see a lot of things in my driving career, both good and bad. Of course it is the bad things that stand out and up until my relocation to Florida I thought I had seen it all. I had come to the conclusion that Phoenix and most of California, have the countries worst drivers. HAH! Not so fast. They ain't got nuttin' on Florida drivers!!! You people have no clue about safety or being a defensive driver. You are the worst lot of drivers I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with, and bare in mind I think I have driven a total of MAYBE 5 days since I have arrived, all fraught with moments of terror and disbelief at the ineptness of driving abilities here ( having driven just a handful of times here is

Every morning I am greeted with this... Recently I was at my doctors for one of my (seems like weekly) appointments and she jumped me pretty good about my eating. By her calculations I am ingesting about 500 calories a day...I sat like a good patient knowing that no matter what she said there was not going to be much of a change in my diet, not if I want to keep my blood sugar under control. I promised to try and do better, but when everything that you think of to eat either leaves your stomach churning or you feeling very indifferent about food, well what are you suppose to do? About the only thing I can tolerate and tastes decent for me lately is toast with peanut butter. I would say that that is my largest meal of the day and I can usually manage to just fource down half of a piece before I deposit the rest of it with a look of disgust in the rubbish. So this has become my morning ritual coffee - first days injection - one hour passes - toast with peanut butter - 2 other oral meds

This is going to have to do for now,one of the medications I am on make me quite nauseous on most days of the week, so until they make a computer that I can operate whilst on my knees in front of the "twah-let" (toilet) I can only manage to post cut and paste news....Oh and for those interested, T-giving was torture for me this year, I cooked and what I ate I had the infinite pleasure of seeing two and sometimes three to four times that day. Bomb threat was ruse to delay takeoff A woman in Sunny Isles Beach, afraid that her boss was going to miss his flight to Honduras, called in a bomb threat to delay the takeoff, the Miami Herald reports. Unfortunately for Claudia De La Rosa, she also sent an e-mail, which can be easily traced, so she was arrested on Thanksgiving. She thought he might miss the flight because she was late to work.

Ok don't get me wrong here, I am not saying that of all the states in our union (Arkansas and Tennessee included) Florida has the most "der-de-ders" walking around...I am just saying. Incidentally, "der-de-ders" are those who are perhaps 1.5 steps up on the evolutionary ladder from neanderthals, you know the sloped fore-headed knuckle-draggers. Or if you still need help: Ne⋅an⋅der⋅thal   /niˈændərˌθɔl, -ˌtɔl, -ˌtɑl; neɪˈɑndərˌtɑl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [nee-an-der-thawl, -tawl, -tahl; ney-ahn-der-tahl] Show IPA –adjective 1. of or pertaining to Neanderthal man. 2. (often lowercase) Informal. primitive, unenlightened, or reactionary; culturally or intellectually backward. Florida does seem to have its fair share of der-de-ders, maybe even just a smidge more then most, especially the upper regions of Florida. I would say from Gainsville north you will find herds and herds of der-de-ders, and they seem not to be listed on the endangered species list anytime

Just cause I thought this was cool its just the vapor trail You can see the dual rocket fire in this one As always remember you can click on the picture and it will come up a bit larger on your screen.... Ok so maybe I am a little overly pleased with myself over these pictures, after all its just a fire ball with some smoke trailing, but trust me this is the space shuttle Atlantis as she launched on Monday, Nov 16, 2009 from Cape Canaveral. I am on the gulf side (western) coast of Florida, Cape Canaveral is on the Atlantic (Eastern coast) of Florida, so I wasn't sure if I would be able to see much of it when it launched, especially since it was day time - a night launch, yeah maybe, but a full daylight launch ey, maybe not so much, but like the true photogeek that I am I had my camera at the ready just in case. I set it up about 15 minutes prior to launch in the back yard - zoom lens pointed in the part of the sky I guessed might be where it would show up - if it was going to sho

I remember not too awfully long after my father died (maybe a few years I can't remember) I would take my mother out to the marine base in our city, the one that my dad worked at when he was active service - the very one that brought us to "the middle of no where" Arizona, way back in the mid 1960's, so that she could go to the dispensary there to get a refill on her medications. One of the perks that my mom and dad got since my father devoted most of his adult life to the military in one form or another is to get their meds for free as long as they refilled them at the military dispensary. Occasionally she would have to get something out in town, because the military dispensary didn't carry it, but basically I think that most all of it she could get on base. I remember sitting in the car waiting for her to return with her booty and watching her walk out of the doors with, sometimes, two paper bags full of medications. I remember her complaining sometimes that

I am sure there are some who read this and think to themselves "Florida is not/can't be all that bad! She needs to be more positive about it all, life/locations/situations are just what you make of them" Or "Good gawd, enough already!" Ok so to those this might satisify you... let me put this in context a little bit, first...I originate from a place on this earth that no man should ever have been allowed to inhabit. The only things that live there are cracked and parched, including the people and their attitudes. The middle of summer is like living in the face of the sun both day and night. The indigenous creatures are just about all poisonous, so if the heat doesn't get you they will...or so the saying goes. Side note: I once saw the greatest t-shirt and kick myself every day for not buying it. It was in an airport gift shop, so of course with inflated prices they charge, I vowed not to buy it, surely I could find it somewhere else - no such luck, anywa

Ok so there is A L O T wrong with our health care system, I think just about everyone agrees with that, but in my opinion just about all the health care initiatives, reforms, and revamps are simply going to put a very small bandage over a VERY gapping wound...it really does not matter what the gov't attempts to implement it simply will not be enough and the part of the medical community ( the VERY LARGE part) that wants to make money will find away around whatever is passed and set into motion. If medicine does not get rich on it, it will not last long...mark my words. Just like Wall Street the money pig of medicine will keep chanting "feed me" Today I had my second experience with the medical community here in Florida. The first one was ok, not the best. My doctor is nice enough, seems to know her stuff and seems interested in her patients. Her office staff maybe not be so much. They have managed to get my birthdate wrong in their system which has brought my benefit

Gila Monster spit to be precise. I am finding that you can take the girl out of the desert, but you can't take the Gila Monster out of the girl. For those wondering, the Gila Monster is a desert dwelling lizard, its suppose to be highly venomous. In all my years of living in the desert I never had the pleasure of meeting one in person, they are quite elusive, but you learn to avoid certain indigenous species in the desert and this is definitely one to avoid. So imagine my surprise when I found out that this ugly spud of a creature ( actually they are quite beautiful in a quazi motto sort of way) is what is keeping me alive! I inject Gila Monster spit every day, twice a day and it in turn regulates my blood sugar, ergo, I don't slip into some random diabetic coma, or find that my kidneys have failed or my legs must be amputated. Don't worry I am not under the care of some witch doctor, or voodoo queen, high priestess, medicine woman, though my doctor has the exotic looks of

Another day of few words, so pictures will be me voice...the first one is just to say good morning to everyone - sunrise over our lake. The others are of a pair of sand cranes who frequent our area, they are quite friendly -not shy at all, in fact the bigger one of the two (I assume he is the male) approaches me with no hesitation when I am outside with them and seems to be be checking me out to see if I have any food. The big one (nicknamed by me as Ricky as in Ricardo) stands nearly as tall as I am (5'7) but maybe a few inches shorter. The female ( nicknamed Lucy by me) is perhaps 5ft tall and just a bit shyer then her man. They are an interesting addition and though I dont seem to intimidate them, the choods do and if they get out of the porch they have no qualms about chasing these 767's of the bird world and the cranes will launch into flight scolding the choodles with that very odd honking/croaking noise. (remember you can click on the below pictures - or any pictures in

Ok I just like Audry Hepburn, in my opinion she is too thin.... The title of this post was taken from a very ghastly movie of which I would categorize as one of my favourites of all time - Silence of the Lambs aka: SOTL. And ghastly is just about the best word I can come up with that describes what my body is looking like these days. I must admit that with the packing, the moving, the health issues and the financial pressures that have been dominating my life lately the way that I look has taken the rumble seat in the car of my life. But things are starting to wind down and settle into something of a routine, and so I happened to glance up from the now empty cardboard boxes, the puppies falling in the lake and the pile of bills on the desk and took a look at just what was staring back at me...lordy lordy. Health issues not withstanding I just have to say O....M....G. Some of these health issues have to do with diabetes and the latest round of meds that I have been put on seems to have

I found a great site that I started to frequent before I moved here to Florida and have been reading ever sense. It gives the "real deal" report on all things good AND bad concerning the area of Florida you happen to live in, as told by regular Joe Schmoe who happens to live here and either knows first hand about whatever topic you can think to ask, has had a relative or friend go through it, or it is just common knowledge as a lot of things are for the natives of any particular city/town/county. And so the term "swiss cheese" started leaking into my brain via this website. Seems I live on the ground floor of swiss cheese central. Here in Florida, at least in my corner of Florida you are known more by the county that you live in rather then the city or town - unless you live in Tampa or St Pete, in that case the city usurps the county and you are known for your city of residence. Here in the Tampa area there are about 400 counties that are associated with living i

Ok do you see that big, disgusting, gawdy thing in the picture?....No, no, no not HIM, thats my husband mowing the yard, look beyond him past the immense spans of water to the wooden dock there. This is where my story begins for todays entry. My husband and I, when we can brave the dew and sauna-like conditions on most weekend mornings, like to sit out on the enclosed patio and drink coffee, talk about the meaning of life and, of course, make fun of our neighbours. This morning was actually a very pleasant morning. There is some cold front that is daring to try to make its way through our area and along with the time change last night ( yes we survived it none-the-worse for wear) this brave little front made its way through...although I hear that it is about to turn "Benedict Arnold" on us and in the days to come this very same cold front plans to reverse direction march back through our area to the north as a warm front. I hate fronts. So we were sitting out there mindin

These are my doggies, they are easily distracted In order of apperance : Rikki (Lhaso somthing) Chili and Cheddar brothers and choodles Cheddar, upclose and personal in all his humiliation after his much needed bath This is post bath time today, they like to get on my bed and use the comforter as a towel. My mother reads my blog and told me that I need to put a picture of the doggies up so everyone will know who I am talking about. Since I am a good girl and always listen to my mother (cough) I will do as I am told. Meet my doggies. They are known as choodles. Well two of them are the eldest one is a Lhasa something or other. Choodles AKA: poo-chi's, Poohuahua's, chipoopoo's or any other combination of chihuahua/poodle you can think of. I personally like Choodle rolls of the tongue easy enough and always makes people scratch their heads and go "a Wha....?" Anyway they are oh-so happy to meet you, in fact Chili just pooped on the patio floor as a tribute to bei

Will you look at that! And I just got through washing all my windows and screens (and believe me there are ALOT of them) last weekend!! HAH HAH Just kidding!!! This is dew disguised as rain...fitting for Halloween isnt it. It didn't rain, no ladies and gentleman readers this is simply dew. The thing that has become my most hated enemy. You know what they say though, keep your friends close and your enemies closer...I have no choice in this matter really, dew is something that seems to seek out living things to cling to and if it can't get to you it will cling to your windows, doors, screens and anything else outside pleading to be let in. I have found that it, in addition to human contact and nurturing that it really enjoys dogs and sadly, dogs don't seem to mind dew And sand and dirt and grass and all manner of vegetation likes to be taken along for the ride ... thus the reason I am constantly washing dogs feet and legs...and this weekend we get to do the whole body trea

Amongst all the other things I have to adjust to coming from west to east is that I now get to experience the time change. This coming weekend we fall back...or is it fall forward? Fall over? Fall down....I dunno. I have done this time change thing before and I don't really care for it. In Arizona, where I come from, we don't observe daylight savings in the summer - oh we used to a long, long, LONG time ago, around the time that dinosaurs roamed the earth, but then the people who decide such things, decided that Arizona has enough sun, no need to increase the rate at which the sidewalks can fry eggs. I also think that the decision to stop daylight savings coincided with the electric company starting their endless rate hikes. So it has been a while since I have had to remember to change the clock Saturday night before I go to bed. I like the inconvenience of having to wake up the next morning to find the rest of the world has adjusted an hour one way or the other and we have r

Enlarge this picture by clicking on it for full effect, go on I dare you.... I am slowly meeting my neighbours. They are a colourful lot, but I am coming to expect that from Florida residents. Aside from the consistant droning of the nightly ( well ok maybe not EVERY night) vector control truck that passes through the neighbourhood (Mosquito fogger) the other sound I am getting used to is the colourful language being yelled at each other as the neighbour's mower hits yet another rock or stick in his yard and his cigarette chewing, big haired, wearing a bra-as-a-shirt, wife bellows at him to shut the F*** up. But this is not really fair. This is just one neighbour and they live two doors down from us. The neighbour on our immediate right ( facing the house cuz I have yet to figure out where north, south, east, or west is) packed up her house in the middle of the night one night and moved out. Come to find out she is walking away from her house facing foreclosure. The neighbour

I am wordless today, too much to think about so this is my alter-ego doing the communicating....enjoy View from my living room past the Florida room to the Lake, Cheddar (dog with little man syndrome is taking it all in Hawk on the tree in back yard Bird sunning himself on the dock two doors down, still learning the birds around here so not sure what this guy is

I have never considered myself a social snob, or some might call it a class snob, but well I think I might be a closet one. Though this is not something that I easily admit to myself - I don't really want to be a snob about anything..snobs are normally not very nice people. I guess I have to admit to having SOME imperfections and this might be one of the few. If you are reading this blog you already know that my husband and I just spent a week in Waterworld...erm I mean Fort Lauderdale. Fort Lauderdale is on the Atlantic Ocean side of the state, while we live on the Gulf Coast side so we had to make the drive from one coast to the other through the interior of Florida a very, shall we say, colourful and interesting view of regional living. For one thing there are several Union Jacks flying high in the sky - a hint for those who are not sure what I mean with the previous sentence as to what life is like it small town interior Florida. Funny how the Union Jack always flys far and awa

It rained yesterday. NO, you dont get it, it RAINED yesterday. Oh not all at once to be sure. I woke up at 3am to what I affectionately term a "frog floater" Mike giggles at me, tells me it reminds him to urinate, since in New Zealand the colloquial expression for having to go pee is to say "Crickey mate! Ma teeth are floatin, off to the loo!" Anyway, the down pour lasted about 10 minutes. Good got that out of the way, I am always thinking about dog paws. You see I have this OCD thing going on about feet. My feet, my husbands feet, strangers feet, now my dogs feet. If they are not clean I very nearly crawl out of my skin. So here I am thinking: its 3am surely, SURELY by 6-7am it will be dry enough, when we talk the dogs out, that instead of a whole bath, the dogs will just require a little drying off with a towel to meet my standard of what feet should be when padding around the suite. (We are currently in Fort Lauderdale and living in a Staybridge Suites motel -

A mud room or mudroom is a room which is built into some houses to act as a barrier between outdoors and indoors. Especially in regions with wet, muddy winters, a mud room can be a useful addition as it helps to keep the house clean. This definition was provided by Wisegeek.com I must confess I am a product of regional norms/terms/traditions. In the Southwest where I originated, mudrooms are pretty unheard of. I heard the term on a rare occassion, but in all my regional ignorance, I thought that it must be a room made out of mud. I guess I was associating it with adobe houses and huts that you find in the desert. Adobe is a sort of mud/clay formed into bricks and baked in the sun to form a hard durable material with which to build some sort of structure. The regional "norm" of the desert is to have adobe brick fences to separate your property from your neighbours. The process of making these adobe bricks, which incidentally are quite beautiful as a finished product, is st