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 |  Fibro fog, pain, writing sandwiched in between. Quotes. Sermon notes. Encouragement. |
A Texas Sunrise  A friend, William Taylor, took this picture. He visits Surfside Beach with his dogs almost every morning, watching the sun rise while the dogs prance about at the water's edge. This is only about ten miles from where I lived in Lake Jackson, Texas. Sadly, I only visited this beach about four times in the six years I lived nearby. Each day is a challenge. A challenge to get by without thinking about the fibromyalgia pains. A challenge to stay awake when chronic fatigure wants to take over. And a challenge to navigate through fibro fog. I haven't been writing as much as in the past. For years, I wrote at least 500 words a day. Now, I'm lucky if I write 500 words in month. Sigh. For more information about what my day (or life) is all about with fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, chronic pains, IBS, depression and everything else thrown in, check this out:
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As I was driving back from the bank the other day, I saw a sign in front of a pizza joint. The sign said, "Four cheese pizza. Three bold flavors." Huh? |
| If we were in the middle of a zombie apocalypse the left would find a way to protest for zombies’ rights Please stop asking "how stupid can they get?" Liberals seem to be taking that as a challenge. |
| The newspaper obviously wants to stir up trouble. They titled my piece about quilts and melting pots, "Immigration without assimilation is invasion." http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/contributors/2017/01/31/immigration-with... |
See the entry below about a melting pot and quilt? I submitted that as a letter to the editor or guest column in our local newspaper. Supposedly they'll be publishing it online tonight and in the newspaper tomorrow.  |
| We used to be a melting pot, now we're just a quilt by Marilyn Mackenzie We used to be a melting pot. People came to America because they wanted to be us. They wanted to be Americans. America was an example of a melting pot where immigrants and people from all over the world visited and lived and shared thoughts and ideas to create one big new culture. At least that's the way it once was. As a baby boomer growing up in Pittsburgh, the influence of so many cultures was evident in the foods we ate and the words we used regularly. If you Google "Pittsburghese" you'll find that Pennsylvania Dutch and even Yiddish words were sprinkled into our vocabulary. Family dinners showed our melting pot worked in the kitchen. Glumpkies and real Italian spaghetti or lasagna were served regularly. And the real evidence came at Christmas time, when our mothers baked cookies made from recipes shared by German, Polish, Scottish and English neighbors. Today, liberals like to say that America is a quilt. I love quilts. Quilts are beautiful. But you can make a quilt with none of the squares being like any other. America was great as a melting pot. It's not so great as a quilt. Today, immigrants come here not to be us, not to be Americans. They come to get what we have instead. Immigration without assimilation is invasion. We have to stop allowing people to invade our shores who have no intention to become like us, but who want our country to become like the ones that they fled. I have a wonderful memory of my brother, at only two years of age, teaching the Polish grandmother living next door to us simple words in English. Although she was quite old, she knew that to be a real American, she had to be able to speak English. Yes, some of us want that America again. And that's why we selected Donald Trump for president. We want our melting pot back. The quilt has got to go. |
| Note to self. Add David Muir to list of newsertainment people to ignore. |
First people from every corner of the US said that Donald Trump could never, would never be president. But the crowds swelled, and politicians and the media ignored them all. And Donald Trump is definitely our president. (We don't need to get into a conversation about the popular vote. Our presidents are elected by the electoral college, and thank God our founders were smart in that regard, otherwise each and every time California and New York would choose our presidents and the rest of us might as well stay home.) Yes, he's our president. Then those same naysayers, from any and all sides, said that Donal Trump could never, would never follow through on his campaign promises. But, again, he's doing just that very thing.  Donald Trump has done more for our country in five days than our previous president did in eight years! Now the naysayers are coming forth pointing out the things that President Trump has not done yet. Seriously? It's only been a few days. But some of them want to know, "WHEN IS HE GOING TO FIX OUR INFRASTRUCTURE?!??!!" I think that it's precious that liberals now think that he's Superman, able to accomplish everything in just a few days. As I said, he has done more in five days than Obama did in eight years. But he's also human. HE HAS TO GET HIS USUAL FOUR HOURS SLEEP. |
| Some liberal on Twitter put me in 3 of her groups - bstsh*t crazy, crackpots for Jesus, and really bad writers. I resent that last one. |
| Sometimes you find helpful things on Facebook. I saw a graphic that I liked. It said, "Alot is not a word. You do not write alittle, abunch, acantaloupe, or aporkchop. Stop writing alot." That one sure did get A LOT of discussion. The most "intellectual" amongst the commenters said that if society changes, then the dictionary eventually changes. I suppose that means that since people on social media cannot figure out whether to use their, there or they're that eventually it won't matter, at least according to that gentleman. In the meantime, it still does matter. The TX newspaper for which I worked over a decade ago still uses "a lot" and "they're/there/their" as some of the tests to determine whether or not one gets hired. |
| Check it out. Does your language reveal your age? Most likely. http://theweek.com/article/index/264467/7-language-habits-that-reveal-your-age |
Motivation is the art of getting people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. ~ Dwight D Eisenhower "My Favorite Neighbor"  "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
| Nightly news reports sure do make you wonder, don't they? Earlier today came the news that, lo and behold, unemployment has been reduced to 6.3%. The White House was so proud. Then came the glowing reports in the news. How quickly they were able to find people who say they're doing well, that they're blessed to be working, even that real estate is doing so much better now. I'm not buying it. Nope. I'm 62 now, and I've lived in times where actual unemployment was 6.3%. It didn't look like this at all. In years past when we had only 6.3% unemployment figures, whether I was living in TX, or FL, or MI, PA or OH, I didn't know anyone who was actually unemployed. With today's supposed 6.3% unemployment figure there are people on my street and neighborhood, people in my church, people I know from other groups (like fibromyalgia support groups and the local TEA party, etc, etc, etc) who I know who are unemployed and some who haven't been able to find work for months or even years, depending upon their job skills or professions. What Team Obama (which, of course, includes lamestream media) is ignoring is that if you look at the number of individuals who could be working, the picture is much bleaker. Today only 62% of individuals able to work are acutally working, and that number is worse than it's been since 1978. Imagine a world where the media would tell you the truth, even if the politicians didn't. That, folks, is why some of us old farts long for days gone by. It's not because we want slavery or that we don't want women voting. It's because we miss the days when the media was on the side of the people, not the side of the money and influence. We long for the days when the majority of politicians knew that they worked for us, not for some lobbying group. We long for the days when every kid in the school could take a gun and no one would ever be shot, because kids were taught to value life. It's not time to celebrate, folks. 6.3% unemployment would be something to gloat about IF it wasn't true that 38% of people who are able to work are sitting at home collecting some kind of benefits paid for by tax payers. Or, they might be living on the streets. For that we should throw a party? Hardly. |
| I get soooooooooooooooooo angry at Democrats who claim that Republicans have a war on woman. Bologna butts! Republicans want everyone to succeed - no matter one's color or gender. The party started so that slaves could be free. (Remember, Democrats started the KKK.) They tried to get civil rights laws passed for a hundred years before it actually happened, and if you look at the voting records, Democrats didn't like those civil rights laws, even when they finally did pass. If you look at Wikipedia or any leftist web site, they'll insist that Democrats were the originators of anything having to do with women getting the vote, but that's just not true at all. The early women’s rights movement was solidly Republican. Susan B. Anthony and most suffragists favored the GOP. The 19th Amendment was written by a Republican got greater support from Republicans than from Democrats. Anyway, all of that being said, Mike Huckabee had some great things to say about this supposed Republican war on women. Here's part of what he said: “It’s time for Republicans to no longer accept listening to Democrats talk about a war on women," Huckabee said in a section of his speech worth quoting at length. "Because the fact is, the Republicans don’t have a war on women. They have a war for women. For them to be empowered; to be something other than victims of their gender. "Women I know are outraged that Democrats think that women are nothing more than helpless and hopeless creatures whose only goal in life is to have a government provide for them birth control medication," he continued. "Women I know are smart, educated, intelligent, capable of doing anything anyone else can do. Our party stands for the recognition of the equality of women and the capacity of women. That’s not a war on them, it’s a war for them. "And if the Democrats want to insult the women of America by making them believe that they are helpless without Uncle Sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or their reproductive system without the help of the government, then so be it," he said. "Let’s take that discussion all across America because women are far more than Democrats have made them to be. And women across America have to stand up and say, 'Enough of that nonsense.'” http://news.yahoo.com/mike-huckabee-wants-republicans-to-fight-back-on--war-on-w... Huck is absolutely right. It's high time that Republicans fought back on this one. It IS insulting that Democrats reduce women to reproductive machines incapable of neither quelling their urges nor of going to the pharmacy to take care of their own business without government assistance. It's time that Republicans pointed out how the war on women is actually being fought by Democrats, who think women are incapable beings. |
| Yes siree Bob, sometimes the bear eats you. My son's dad was "Houston's premiere piano bar-ister" back in the late 70s and early 80s and he sang a song with those words. Sometimes you eat the bear Sometimes the bear eats you So c'est la vie And c'est la guerre Fair is fair is fair. That was probably the chorus and I have absolutely no idea what the verses said. But I do remember those lines. (And the tune.) Yesterday was a day when the bear ate me. I had a 9 am doctor's appointment. I've been dealing with a chronic sinus infection and suddenly it felt like it was also in my chest and my ears and throat. Grrr. Sure enough it was. So the nurse practitioner I saw prescribed an antibiotic and told me to take 12-hour pseudoephedrine. I've taken pseudoephedrine before, the 30 mg ones. The 12-hour pills are 120 mg. And within 30 minutes of taking the antibiotic and pseudoephedrine, I WANTED TO DIE...AND HOPED IT DEATH CAME QUICKLY. I've been through a lot - physically - in my 61 years. Knee injury. Back injury. 14 hour labor pains (and then a C-section). Chronic pain (because of fibromyalgia and arthritis). I've had chest pains and then had doctors arguing about whether my problem was heart or gall bladder. (Turns out they were both wrong. I have arteries and veins that spasm...because of the fibromyalgia and Raynaud's Syndrome.) But what I experienced yesterday was so much worse than anything I'd ever experienced before. If you've ever been told to take niacin supplements - the kind that does "flush" you, not the non-flushing type - you know what it feels like to take too much. You get flushed. Your heart might race. It's temporary and not that bad. What I experienced yesterday was similar to that, but about 100 times worse. Oh, I got a flushing feeling. But it felt as if my internal temperature had gone off the charts. Not only that, but it felt like I was having a hot poker shoved into every orifice of my body. Seriously. My heart raced. I cannot explain all that I felt. I thought about calling 9-1-1, but thought I'd be cautious first. I tried calling the doc's office, but the call went to voicemail. So, I contacted my pharmacist. He informed me that I was having a reaction to the pseudoephedrine. He told me to eat some sugar and carbs and to drink some milk and that the effects would wear off in about 2-3 hours. Okay, I was calmer. I took a chill pill (ie something for anxiety) and then my son decided that I should take my blood pressure. When I had been at the doc's office earlier, my BP was 103/68. When I took it - after starting to calm down and after taking my chill pill - it was 157/90. I'm glad I didn't call 9-1-1 because they might have thought I was having a stroke or heart attack with the symptoms I was displaying. Eventually the stuff was out of my system and my BP was back down to 105/70 in about 2 1/2 hours. Whew. No sooner was that all over and done with than a guy from the power company showed up. We've been having some electrical problems at our house and that scares me. Years ago in TX, I saw an electrical fire and it wasn't pretty. Our lights have been flickering all over the house. We had an electrician come and he did find a loose wire at the breaker box in the garage. But that didn't stop the flickering. He came back and found a loose wire at the meter outside. But that didn't stop the flickering. Next we called in the power company. By the time the first guy showed up we had realized that the flickering was happening when it was windy. Ah-ha. It has to be an outside problem, right? The first electric employee didn't have a bucket truck. He put his ladder up and shook and shook the wire leading from the pole to the house. But he couldn't make the lights flicker. The next guy brought a bucket truck and, lo and behold, he found a loose wire at the transformer. But, you guessed it. That didn't stop the flickering. Yesterday when the power guy came to the house, I think it was the 5th one. He put connected some handy-dandy gadget to our meter that will tell them when we're experiencing flickering....to try to figure out why we are. It's going to be hooked up until Tuesday so they have days to analyze. No sooner had the power guy gone than I got a call from our internet service provider (the phone company, since we have DSL through them) saying that the repair guy was minutes away from our house. For some reason, we suddenly have some strange stuff happening with our internet connection. The modem and router were 3 years old, so the guy replaced them. But he also said that our problem might be because of the electrical flickering problems we're having. Great day in the morning. Sometimes the bear eats you. . |
| And now white is the new blue? According to a commercial for jeans, it is. Weird. |
| The other day I heard a designer say that orange is now the new beige. She went on to explain that now that orange is considered a neutral color, it pairs well with greens, blues and purples. What? Sure enough. If you look at design magazines you'll see that orange is being used a bunch. Orange is also seen in fashion photos. Hmmm. In one of my many trips to doctors in January I thumbed through a fashion magazine while sitting in the waiting room. I guess it's a good thing that I was born when I was. Don't get me wrong. As a teen I wore mini-skirts and even had flower designed hip-hugger bell-bottom jeans. But there is no way I would want to be a young woman today. I could not wear green stripes paired with orange polkadots. I just couldn't do it. That's the kind of thing I saw in the fashion magazine - plaids with stripes, stripes with polkadots, flowered patterns paired with checkered patterns. Yikes. The models reminded me of a bunch of homeless women who were wearing all the clothes they owned layered on top of each other. And speaking of layers.... What's up with buying a tube and putting it around your belly (accentuating you obesity) pretending that you're wearing layers? Yes, I understand that it's healthy to love yourself no matter what your weight. But does everyone have to wear clothes that look like they belong to your younger (and much thinner) sister? Sure it's fashionable to claim that you're a size 6, but I worked in retail for years and you're not fooling me. I know a size 14 when I see one. Geesh. Those tube things around the waist would be great if they worked like the old girdles we used to wear (yes, even under slacks). And older women? Come on. It was fun to wear short skirts when we were young, but they look foolish on old ladies. And when did we forget how ugly bare legs can look? It's bad enough to always have bare legs as a young woman, but when you're old and wrinkled and have varicose veins....  "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
| ...I figured I'd try to meet it all by my lonesome in the month of January. And, lo and behold, I did! Yeppers. Spent $3500 all by myself in January. Of course, it helped that my prescriptions for fibro meds were $618 and $224 (compared with $400 and $154 last year before we met the deductible. We do have good insurance, so after we meet it most meds are "free" - i.e. covered by our premiums.) Anyway... I've been battling a sinus infection for months and saw the doc 3 times in January about that. The only reason it's a big deal is that the dentures I got last year don't fit worth a ding-dong and they can't do a new mold until I can breathe through my nose. Grrr. Saw a new fibro doc. Saw a new IBS doc. Had blood tests. And had another colonoscopy. Last one was 7 years ago. Everything's still fine there. This new IBS doc prescribed an antibiotic - the same one they give to traveler's who forgot and drank the water - and it worked. I've been suffering with IBS every day of my life for over 30 years and one round of this antibiotic, plus some probiotics seems to have fixed everything up. Let's pray that continues. Saw a doc about my left knee. (I injured it at work back in 2002 and had knee surgery and it hasn't been right since.) I can't get cortisone injections for the pain because cortisone doesn't like me at all. When I had cortisone injections for a back injury back in about 2000, I not only had the "normal" reaction of having everything turn to fat, but I couldn't taste anything for an entire year and the cortisone permanently thinned my skin. I bruise and bleed all the time. In fact, the last time I tried working, the last 3 days I worked, I bumped and bruised and bled so badly the folks in personnel followed me around with a Polaroid camera documenting that I wasn't doing anything dangerous to get hurt like I was. I finally gave up trying to work... About the knee doc...I did get some injections that will try to get my body to start producing its own stuff around the knee cap. Right now, it feels like bone on bone when I walk. These injections are going to try to fix that...and so far I think they are. Hooray! Also saw my eye doc, but that was a follow up visit and already covered under what was paid last year for my cataract surgery and then laser surgery a few months later. My eyes are great. I wore glasses for distance since I was 10. I had 20/200 vision in one eye and 20/400 in the other. Now I'm at about 20/25, definitely good enough to drive without glasses. Yippee! I do need a very weak pair of readers, but I can deal with that. What else.... I know there were more doc appointments... You'd think I was old or something. Nah. In April I'll be 61. Still young.I do need to get more active here. I will work on that....in between doc appointments. This month I had only 3. Next month I have 3 scheduled. "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
| I saw a great t-shirt the other day. It said, "Let's eat Grandma. Let's eat, Grandma. Commas save lives." |
| Please go to this web site and vote for my church, Salem Community Church. While you're there, you can see the video our pastor sent. We're one of ten churches selected, in the running to get $60,000 for outreach. Our church does a great job with outreach now, but we're not a big church. This would be so helpful. Here's the link: http://greatoutreachgiveaway.com/vote  "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
| I don't know who you are, but as I looked at my statistics for this blog I noticed that between 8 and 12 people view the page each and every day. Wow. I guess I'll have to look more closely to see how many of those views from inside the Writing.com community and how many are from outside. So what's up with me? I had my teeth all pulled in November of last year, due, they tell me, to both having fibromyalgia and the medications I take for all of my various maladies. By June I should have had my permanent dentures in place and looking like a million bucks. But that's not how things work for me. I'm still wearing the "intermediate" teeth which looked great when the were put in in November, but as they've been changed (adding linings and scraping linings away as my mouth changed over the months) they're now rather ugly. So why haven't I gotten my fancy new permanent dentures? For one thing, my mouth still keeps swelling and that makes it almost impossible to fit something comfortably. And for another, the stress over my stupid mouth and dentures caused the cataracts that had been quietly lurking decided to go into full blast acceleration. Yeah. And did I mention that I turned 60 in April. Yep. This young 60 year old has denture problems and now cataracts. Unbelievable....to me, anyway. I had one eye operated on July 31 and the other should be on August 21. If all goes right, I'll end up with better vision than I've had for the past 50 years. So keep those prayers coming, okay? "My Favorite Neighbor" "Sharing Sunshine...It's What I Do!" "Admirable Women" "Whose Work Are You Stealing?" "The Potter's Cup and Saucer" |
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