Day dreams

I love Saturdays. Don't get me wrong I love my family and friends very much, but Saturdays, well they are special. You see Saturdays I have all to myself. I can sit and day dream, or go for a walk with my devoted four legged companion, I can eat when I want, what I want, where I want, I can go and get a fruit smoothie, or an iced coffee or I can just sit and stare at the bright blue crisp sky outside. You see Saturdays are ALL mine. My man leaves early in the morning to do his duty at the fire station for 24 hours, and of course I live in an empty nest so both kidlets are already gone off on their own.
I don't clean on Saturdays anymore, I don't do laundry, sometimes I don't even make my bed. It is just me and my four legged companion. I don't have to think about what to make for lunch or dinner (I can have a bowl of hot oatmeal for dinner if I want) or even worry about cleaning up the dishes until I want to.
I can sit in the middle of the family room floor and look at photo albums reminiscing of when my kidlets were young, or when I was young for that matter. Saturdays are a peaceful time, I don't have to listen to the horrible news about this murder, that child abuse, the stock market crash, or more senseless squabbles amongst the political candidates.
Yup, I love Saturdays, my day to be selfish, silly and totally uncommitted to anything or anyone. Sunday comes soon enough and so does reality but for now, it is just me and my Saturday.

The battle with the furry underground critters

Three years ago my man and I moved into our home in the country, on THE hill. The gardens were grossly cared for and little color was found other than moss green, and weed browns. In an effort to establish instant spring color without too much work until the gardens could be primed I went to my local nursery and bought over 300 early spring, late spring and summer blooming bulbs. They were going to be beautiful, crocuses, tulips (in a variety of colors) and daffodils (king Alfred's, two tones, double blooms) ah and the gladioli ( just a few though, they tend to fall over a lot with the rains).
I set out on a crisp fall day with my bulb planter in one hand and my bulb food in the other. This will be great, come spring the back yard will just be awash in a multitude of color.
WA-LA!!! Spring finally arrives, okay I am ready, where is my backyard color sensation? Yes well lots of crocuses in one spot (even though I could almost swear I spread them out more extensively). Ah well no matter the daffs should be next to follow in a couple weeks. And I planted LOTS of daffodils. Okay 2 weeks, 3 weeks, 3 1/2 weeks, where are my daffodils? I know I planted more than 10!!! Hmmmm something is up under my newly planted splash of color. Okay well again no matter because surely the tulips will rise to all their glory, right? maybe? please?
Now what are all these mounds in my garden? I don't remember all these soft, freshly dug mounds of smooth dirt going right down the middle of MY BULBS!!!!!
Great my color sensation turned out to basically be a color unsensation. Out of the more than 300 bulbs I planted I think less than 10% actually came to fruition. I am so glad I could provide such a tasty morsel winter snack to all our underground furry friends.
Next year I am going to plant giant garlic bulbs around each color sensational grouping. That will surely give those furry critters something to think about as they bite into the fiery garlic bulb instead of the sweet tasting flower bulb. WRONG!!!! Three years later and I am still replanting multiple bulbs only to have a 10% or less crop by the following spring. Why are my bulbs so tasty? Others in the neighborhood have beautiful collections of multicolored bulbs sprouting up all over their yards (and I do mean all over, :) )
Well any suggestions on how to keep the squirrels and moles away from my bulbs will be greatly appreciated.

Alzheimer's, Dimentia, or just Forgetfulness....

It is October and still everyone is begging for those sunny warm days. Not me, I like cloudy days, as long as it is raining too. I like to sit with my nice warm cup of hazelnut latte, cuddled up in my warm fuzzy Eeyore blanket and listen to the rain drops drip dipping away.
Today is almost that kind of day except...I can't breathe!! Well I can but it feels like I can't most of the time. (Lung conditions yuck!!) After fighting with this ailment (I have problems at least 3-4 times a year) for several days I finally decided to concede to the doctor, well half way. I notified my delightfully talented doctor yesterday, "yep me here, yep got it again, yep can't breath without coughing, yep feel like &*(^. We agree to try Prednisone first. I hate Prednisone (it messes with my blood sugars something fierce, up, down, up, down, but mainly up). If the Prednisone doesn't work then will add the antibiotics (hate the antibiotics too, they mess with the digestion if you get my drift). Okay, so agree to start with the Prednisone, doctor will have nurse phone it in, great, I will give it a couple hours, go pick up the script and sneak on over to Starbucks for my weekly fix, ah heaven. WRONG!!!! After waiting all day for the script my man goes by to pick it up and pharmacy has no record of the call from doc. Great another night not being able to catch my breath.
So I get up this morning and send my doc a cute little email, hey doc, no script, what's the deal. He quickly writes back, hmmm, sure it was phoned in, will check on it. Meanwhile here I sit, no hazelnut latte, but rain outside, and my fuzzy Eeyore blanket but not being able to catch my breath. Yes this could be better.
Oh cool just got call from nurse, she FORGOT to call in the script!!!! Good thing I just couldn't breath and not something like a REAL problem. Oh well my man will pick it up on his way home. We all hope!!!! it will be there by then.
Yes this could be better. Oh bother.......

Techno Dizzy

I started this blog about a month ago with the intention that it would be a good place for me to air some of my pent up frustrations. Well, lots of my pent up frustrations. Then I got hooked into this online concept called Facebook. Wow, now there is an experience. I am still trying to fumble my way through the basics let alone anything fancy. Let's see I have learned how to post pictures, that was pretty easy. I haven't learned how to get that little heart thingy in front of my comment that says I am married. It can't really be that hard now can it? I mean everybody seems to have one somewhere on their wall. Oh that is another opportunity. Remember when we were kids and we always got yelled at? "hands off the walls", "don't write on the walls". Well now there is actually a "wall" that you can write on, color on, post pictures to and a whole variety of once determined no no's.

I love learning about my kids friends from high school, how they have grown, what they are doing with their lives, what they have done for the past 6 years. Oh tell me it isn't so... have they really been out of high school that long? It seems like only yesterday. Where does the time go?

Well I am off to master some other quirky thing on facebook before I get so far behind on this nifty techno thinga-ma-jig and they come out with something new that I have to start learning all over again.

I Should Get Paid the Big Bucks

I am like most Americans right now with my nose plastered on CNN and the Dow. I was so impressed (NOT) the other day when I was listening to Charles Gibson on ABC interview Senator John McCain. He asked the senator a simple question, "Is it fair to those that have struggled along to pay their mortgages for the government to come along and take over the mortgages of those that have defaulted or are in jeopardy of foreclosure?" basically the senators response was "No, but that is just the way it is right now with our economy". Now I am not implying that Obama's responses have been any better. Quite frankly I am doing a write in ballot for president and I am writing in "Woopie Goldberg" for president and "Snoopy" for vice president. (I know I am joking about a very serious matter here but honestly this whole election this year leaves a lot to be desired).

Now my personal opinion is that all those people that are in jeopardy of foreclosure or defaulting on their mortgage should have their mortgages re-assessed. Why not take their monthly payments and say ok you can't pay $1000/month so how about $600. Take the balance owed on their mortgage, decrease the interest rate in such a way that monthly payments are only $600 and add on extra years to the end of the loan to balance it out until the loan is paid in full. Therefore instead of a 30 year mortgage with monthly payments of $1000 it becomes a 35 year mortgage with monthly payments of $600. That way the owner is still paying for their own mortgage, the lender is still getting paid the full amount, and we the tax payers are not having to bail out every one's stupidity.

Honestly, all those "highly" educated and very "highly" paid people in Washington couldn't think of this themselves? Why should we all have to pay off the stupidity of greedy home buyers and lenders?

Never Underestimate MY Kidlet

C is in her first semester of grad school. She is working on her Master's in Teaching. Recently she turned in her first paper. (Remember how that felt? not knowing for sure what the professor grades like, your knees knocking in anticipation of that first graded assignment)
The remnants of Ike caused a disruption throughout the east coast and KY was not spared. Power loss of almost a week put many areas on hold including C's school, resulting in the professor giving added time for the first assignment.
Not being much of a procrastinator, C opted to follow through with the original due date and turned in her assignment much to the disbelief of her professor. Professor - "Are you sure you don't want some extra time to collect more data?" C - "No I think my data is sufficient for this assignment."
Well surprise!!! C got her first grad school assignment back this week and she made a believer of her professor, Never Underestimate MY Kidlet!!! You guessed it, C got a perfect score on her first assignment. And as with any proud student, that first perfectly scored paper is proudly posted on her refrigerator. That's my girl!!

Hump Day

I love Wednesday's, they give me hope. The week is almost over and the weekend is almost here, yes I love Wednesday's.
Not too much seems to happen on Wednesday's, yet we always seem to get excited when Wednesday finally comes. I am sure it is because we are looking forward to the weekend yet as close as we are to the weekend we are just as far away from the weekend.
I see now the government of Washington state is going to start working 4 day weeks in order to save energy costs. What does that do to their hump day? I mean if they have Mondays off then Wednesday is hardly the "middle". If they have Fridays off well Wednesday just doesn't make any sense as hump day then either. Maybe they should take Wednesday off, I mean wouldn't that be the true definition of "hump"? It is the hump in the middle of the 4 work days. Ah who really knows. I just know it seems like another government reason not to work.
Oh bother.........

How many days till Christmas??

I was watching Good Morning America this morning while eating my bagel and drinking my cup of coffee when a very interesting story caught my eye. Well actually I don't know how interesting it really is, but nonetheless it caught my eye.
It seems that with our current state of the economy being totally in the garbage many retailers are trying to devise ways to somehow salvage their profit margins for the year. HA! Good luck. Oh sorry got a little carried away there for a moment.
Now last I checked it is still 29 days until Halloween, that is right, the day of ghosts and goblins, and dentists seeing dollar signs of little boys and girls rotting teeth. (Well that is another blather for another time).
This story that so nonchalantly caught my eye was about how WM has decided to fill their shelves with Christmas treasures now hoping to cash in on those "early" shoppers. Now I must admit I am an early shopper. I start my Christmas shopping right after the new year and hide treasures all year long. Often times not remembering where I have hidden an item until perhaps 2 holidays in the future but hey I am prepared.
My biggest complaint about lining all those store shelves with pretty green, red and gold treasures is for all the parents that will now have to endure the pleadings of their little shin biters wanting the newest and greatest toy craze. At a time when we are all struggling to put the gas in the car and food on the table what we really need are the retailers enticing our kidlets to convince their parents that they "really, really" need/want that special toy for a mere $59.95. AGH!!!!!!!!!!
Which by the way did anyone else notice that at least in Washington state anyway the income level for a family of 4 to qualify for food stamps is now $42,400? Oh my golly miss molly, all those years I really was starving my family!!!
What is next....Oh bother.....

Health Insurance - Can't Afford It; Can't Live Without It

Why is it that insurance companies always seem to think they know what is better for the patient than the patient's personal physician?

I appreciate the need to keep medical costs down, what I don't appreciate is having to fight with an insurance company when my doctor writes a prescription for a medication and the insurance company won't approve the filling without the doctor completing a prior approval application. And of course you never know you need one until you are standing at the pharmacy to pick up your medication and the pharmacist says the insurance company denied the script.
WHAT? What do you mean they denied it? My doctor wrote the prescription.

Well turns out the medication is one of hundreds that requires prior authorization, which means faxing a form to the doctor to fill out, the doctor faxes the form back to the insurance company and then the insurance company takes another 48 hours to process the approval. Meanwhile, me, the patient, has no medication. And if you turn in the prescription late Thursday or on Friday, forget it, now you also have the weekend and doctors don't fill out forms on weekends and insurance companies don't process special authorizations on weekends so now 24-48 hours has turned into 96-120 hours. Well by this time I can either be gravely ill somewhere or dead.

But hey, my insurance company got my premiums on time, they just don't have to process my authorizations in any type of expeditious fashion.
Gotta love it, oh bother.....