Blog Archives
Too much information
Posted by doggonedmysteries
A local plastic surgeon is advertising a new liposuction. “We can remove your belly fat and use it to enlarge your butt and enhance your breasts.”
Now, the truth be told, I’d love to have some belly fat removed. It’s always been a trouble spot for me. However, even though I have no ass, I have no desire to have my fat removed from one place and added to another. Besides, since I’ve never had an ass (I’ve known several asses in my lifetime but we won’t go there) I wouldn’t know how to act, dress, or sit on one. I’m used to my flat ass. I’m betting it would seem oh so weird having new fat back there. Would I have to learn how to walk all over again? Would I bounce out of a chair if I flopped in it? I have so many questions.
That brings us to the other part of the body they will inject the fat. I’d rather have a reduction in the boob zone than an enhancement. Mine aren’t overlarge but why not have my boobs reduced so in another decade or two they aren’t pointing at the ground? Little boobs stay perky.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, comedy, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Life is down to simple pleasures
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Thanks to BP, the cost of fish, shellfish, and heating oil will skyrocket this year. Don’t you believe that they won’t pass the costs on to us. Tighten your belts is what they will tell us. Honey, if my belt were any tighter my backbone would meet my belly button.
We don’t go out and we seldom buy anything other than necessities and a DVD or two. We only buy the DVDs because DH can’t sit in a theater.
Our vehicles are over ten years old. We don’t drive anywhere other than to do the crucial things in life.
Our dogs are overdue on their shots, which is one thing I hope to rectify the end of this month. Both of them could use a check up and I will make that appointment sometime next week.
Life is down to simple pleasures and keeping spending to a minimum. Instead of traveling, we enjoy our backyard—weather permitting. Tonight was lovely since we had rain today and the temperature dropped to very comfortable.
I am growing vegetables and melons for the first time in years. Other than a few tomato plants and some herbs the last several years, I haven’t grown anything edible. Now I have tomatoes, a variety of peppers, and two types of squash, watermelons, cantaloupes, and cucumbers.
Posted in Misc, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, tighten your belts, Writer, Writing
It’s going to be a while before he lives down this one
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Casper has a boo-boo. For those of you that don’t know, Casper is my white van that, because of all its electrical quirks, it seems as though it has a ghost, thus the name.
DH had another ambulance run emergency with his mother and came home to get my van in case they released her he could drive her home. (She is home now.) His mother can’t climb into his truck so he has to use my van. On the way to the hospital, he had a minor fender bender when the driver in front of him slammed on her brakes. The other vehicle was a large SUV and she had no damage at all.
However, my van had damage. I am not a happy camper. Gentlemen, if you drive your wife’s car for any reason, do so with great care because I’ve got to tell you, it’s going to be a while before he lives down this one. Well, it will take at least until it is repaired and then some.
I guarantee you he’ll hear the words ‘drive carefully’ every time he drives my van from now on.
Posted in Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Days of record-breaking triple-digit temperatures
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We need rain. We haven’t had any for weeks. The heat is making my garden produce like crazy. However, it wouldn’t be doing that if I didn’t water every day.
So far, I’ve harvested nine banana peppers, five Hungarian sweets, a large patty pan squash, and one lovely cucumber that I shared with G. I’m keeping my eye on two sugar baby watermelons that are growing rapidly. I’m also hoping that two won’t be all I get from the vines.
We finally have a couple of tiny cantaloupes going and the tomato plants are loaded with green tomatoes. The tomato plants in the back garden are taller than I am.
I have two very AC spoiled dogs. They only want to go out when they absolutely have to go. I can’t say that I blame them this heat has been miserable. DH, the dogs, and I have stayed indoors as much as possible. I hate this because I normally spend my summer outside as much as possible.
When they coined the saying, “the South shall rise again,” I don’t think this is what they meant. This heat can go back down south where it came from.
Posted in My blog, my garden, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Food, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
It’s a racket I tell ya.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Their stock is up. Their profits are way up. They are making money hand over fist. I can tell you the why of it too. They now cover fewer drugs, they routinely deny drugs to patients, and they raised the co-pay at least 15%. Can’t help but make a profit when you gouge more and spend less.
The Chairman and CEO, age 55, makes a whopping $1,300,000 yearly salary. I’m betting that if he needs a drug for some illness, he doesn’t have to worry about how to pay for it. The President and COO, Age 56, makes a tidy $810,872 a year. He doesn’t worry either. The SVP Finance and CFO, Age 52, makes $548,560 a year, another one who has no worries about where he’d find the money to pay for a prescription.
Yowza, if we had that sort of money coming in each year we wouldn’t worry either. Ampyra is a new drug. It is a costly drug. Why would they want to nick their profit margin a bit? They live well. They have no worries. Why bother helping out the little guy?
DH’s neurologists want him on Ampyra. It’s a quality of life thing. DH struggles to walk every day. Some days he walks better than other days. However, now it is summer and the heat (especially the record-breaking heat we’re having) makes him worse. Guaranteed, if Mr. Chairman and CEO with the $1,300,000 yearly salary had the same problem, he’d get Ampyra tomorrow.
Posted in MS related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Ampyra, Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Healthcare, Home, Life, Love, Medical insurance lies, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, prescription programs, Profit margins, Writer, Writing
Ampyra approved then taken away
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Well this sucks big time. We were told by a certain health plan that DH was approved for Ampyra and today we got a letter from the same people telling us that he is not approved. You know what, I hate making phone calls. In spite of this, someone has some ‘splaining to do.
Phones are going to be ringing and when I’m finished, I’m betting a few ears will be too. Angry doesn’t describe how I feel right now. I won’t tolerate this sort of treatment. I will fight tooth and nail for DH. No one EVER pulls the rug out from under my loved ones like that. I don’t care whom it is I have to run to ground I will get results.
DH has always said, “Don’t get the Irish Indian mad she will go on the warpath.”
I am past mad and well down the road to infuriated. If I have to go all the way to the top of the company, I will do that. I can make waves, big ones. I am a writer.
Posted in MS related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Ampyra, Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Healthcare, Home, Life, Love, Medical insurance lies, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Updates and a Happy Birthday wish
Posted by doggonedmysteries
Record heat here today and it was far from pleasant. Normally I enjoy summer but we’ve had two major heat waves already and it’s barely into July. We are going to have more records broken this week according to the weather reports. If I wanted to live in the south I would, but I don’t.
My neighbor finished painting the shed today and it looks brand new. All is painted except for the doors, which we told him to leave alone. DH wants to straighten out some dents that he put in them and then we’ll paint them.
Happy Birthday Chuck! Hope you have a nice birthday, Sweetie! Our dear old friend Chuckles has tacked on another year today.
On a gardening note: I found three little watermelons on the vines today. The cucumbers are getting larger another week or two and I might have some in a salad. I harvested more banana peppers. There are a few nice patty pan squash coming along, finally. No cantaloupes yet, the one or two I thought we might have died teensy. I’m guessing they weren’t properly pollinated could be because the male and female flowers were out of sync but they seem to be blooming together now. I hope that means we will have fruit to enjoy. There are now dozens of green tomatoes on the tomato plants, yippee!
Posted in Misc, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Food, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
A little flag waving in honor of yesterday
Posted by doggonedmysteries
After a day loaded with food, fireworks, and military band music, it was nice to take time to remember why we celebrate the 4th of July.
The freedoms we have are precious gifts given to us by those visionaries who fought hard to achieve the birth of a great nation. What an amazing accomplishment. Do not let their dream fade in apathy.
Hang tightly to those freedoms and be proud of who we are as a nation.
This is a great country. It is my country and I’m proud of it. I am grateful to be a citizen.
Posted in Holidays
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Jewelry, Life, Love, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Necklaces, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Hot weather, painting, and a new houseguest
Posted by doggonedmysteries
The heat is back on. Darn it, the past few days were wonderful. The temperatures were perfect. We had mid to upper 70’s during the day and mid 60’s at night. With no humidity to speak of, what could be better.
The neighbor’s son came through and the painting of the shed has begun. It will be nice when it’s finished. We did have to exchange most of the spray paint for brush on and change the color of the roof. The hammered copper didn’t look nice. How disappointing. At least this will give the shed several more years of life.
The rising heat has already started up Gavin’s itching. He looks forward to his daily dose of Benadryl…of course that could be because he gets it with peanut butter.
Somehow, we’ve acquired a new houseguest of the rodent type. It probably got in one of the many times when DH left the back door opened while he had the dogs outside. Both DH and Gavin saw it run under the couch yesterday. The traps are set. I’m hoping we’ll rid ourselves of it in quick order.
Posted in Dog related, Misc, Weather related, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
I think I lost a few brain cells
Posted by doggonedmysteries
When a strange and strong wind went through here a few weeks back, it peeled all the vines off our shed. The removal of the vines revealed rust on the roof and the sides. That’s when I realized the shed needed a paint job.
One problem, I don’t like to climb ladders any higher than the third step. Another problem, I have a short reach so painting the shed roof won’t come easy. The third problem is the color I’d like for the roof only comes in spray paint form.
The decision, use rust resistant spray paint to paint the shed. I cleaned the surfaces. Then I sprayed Rusty Metal Primer on some of the rusted areas. Not my most brilliant idea, I think I lost a few brain cells.
Even with a mask, I can’t stand the fumes. I need someone who will paint for me. I am attempting to bribe the neighbor’s son to do it. (He likes climbing ladders it is part of his job.) If that doesn’t work, I may have to beg.
Posted in Misc, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Mittened kitten found a home
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I received some good news from G today. It seems that the kitten who has been living on her deck has found a home. That is if it stays around for a few more days. G says that with her luck he’ll disappear when the woman comes to get him and then reappear a few weeks later.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this doesn’t happen and he goes on to live happily ever after with his new owner.
While I was visiting G today he curled up on my lap and stayed put for quite a while purring all the time. He’s going to make a wonderful lap cat.
He’s gained some weight since he came to live at G’s. He certainly has enjoyed the food they’re giving him. You no longer see each rib, his hipbones don’t look like knife blades, and his spine isn’t sticking out.
The day his new owner comes to get him, he has a vet appointment for neutering before she takes him home. Poor baby is in for a big surprise. He’ll get over it soon enough. I’ve a feeling she’s going to enjoy spoiling him.
Posted in Misc, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, cats, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Home, homeless kitten, kittens, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pets, Writer, Writing
The wrens’ picnic
Posted by doggonedmysteries
The last two days we saw a wonderful change in our weather. Things feel normal. We’ve had low humidity and cooler days and nights. Hooray, for good weather.
Today we had a lot of activity out in the yard. Not only were the regular robins, sparrows, finches, starlings, and grackles visiting but also a pair of wrens brought their sizable family over for a picnic. Watching Mom and Dad wren dash about to feed their six babies was a hoot. I dragged DH to the back porch so he could see the commotion.
“You’ve got to see this. There’s six baby wrens all lined up in the chain link fence and raising hell.”
He dragged himself from his chair. “Six baby wrens?”
“Yeah, Mom and Dad are scrambling to feed them.”
We stood on the back porch and watched through the window. The baby wrens were screaming for food, flitting about the next-door neighbor’s and our yards. Their parents looked frazzled trying to keep the babies in one place long enough to feed them.
“Wow, six babies. They must be catholic.” DH said.
“I’m going to tell G you said that. She’s going to hit you.”
“I’ll duck and run.”
“She’s faster than you are.”
Posted in my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Birds, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Craft of writing, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, feeding the birds, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Happy birds, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Doggonedmysteries 