I know It has been a couple of days.... from HELL! Life in the not so fast lane, as I plan to go to the Casino BY MYSELF ON THURSDAY! SHHHH! No Ones knows yet. :)

My Birthday is the 15th, and I am sick and tired of being at home, running errands, going to doctors, taking care of this, that and the other, and not getting a break, SO I MADE A RESERVATION (COMP ROOM0 Overnight at the Casino for Thursday night... could not get the 14th of course due to Valentine's Day and President's Day on the 15th....

Anyway, it has been one helluva weekend, Mom's phone has been OUT since last Thursday and it was the PHONE COMPANY'S FAULT and they did not fix it until ABOUT AN HOUR OR LESS AGO!!!! So, here she is 81 years old without a phone all weekend, well 5 days at least, so guess who had to go check on her everyday all weekend, and that is just the half of it.

I face my neck cervical possibly on Feb 18th, which is about the time I hoped for... right after my birthday!


Here are a few new pics of the fur-kids... the older one Bubba does NOT LIKE sweaters, even though he is so cold all the time, so it was a bit of a chore to put his on.,

I thought I would share a few with you....

Medicare, Disabilities, Chronic Illnesses, Chronic Pain... and going through the "hoops" to get the help we need...

Morning gals and guys... or guys and gals, however you want to put it. I realize I've been almost "quiet" the past couple of days, which is not like me.

I've been doing several things, from continuing on my spring/summer "cleaning"... believe me when I get into one of these moods, if it is not "nailed down" it may just get thrown away, given away, or whatever... but it will not stay in this house for sure.

I do this about 2 - 3 times a year. I guess we all have a certain "time" that we decide it is time to "junk away"... I am not a "hoarder" by no means. But, I do believe in hanging on to some items, knowing there will come a time, I will decide I need a certain item.

So, like many, I have a "guide" I go by. If I have not needed it, thought about it, worn it, looked at it... for OVER a year or a bit more... then it's time to either get rid of it, or decide to use it in whatever way I intended.

I don't like to be one of those who hangs onto every plastic butter bowl, or every coffee can, or old towels, sheets, or even clothes. Usually on my clothes, I have a few tops I wear around the house daily. They are probably not really fit to run to town in, but okay enough for around the house. Then I have some I wear for everyday errands. Those I wear to run errands in, to the market, to Wally World... and when they get to the place, they are looking kind of "not all that great", I use those around the house, and by then it is more than time to "chunk" away the other old house tops. You can bet by then, they are stained, probably are beginning to have a few tiny holes in them and so on.

As far as my "dressy"... more go to the Casino, out to eat, or something else ... that I feel I need to dress up for... again, I go through them a couple of times a year. If I have not put it on, thought about it, even remotely considered doing anything in it, then usually it goes to Good Will, if it is still in good shape. I try my best NOT to have LOTS of stuff, that is totally NOT going to be worn here in my closets. Thus, a couple of times a year during the season changes is a great opportunity to take them and let someone else get some use out of them. I do the same with magazines, books, and the like. If I can "reuse", then I do... if I can give it to others to recycle, reuse, etc... I do... If none of those sound feasible, then usually it goes over to "Soul's Harbor"... which is a store, that everyone does the same. Whether clothes, furniture, dishes, you name it... and you don't really want to throw it out, then we take them there. You can get a receipt for a tax write off, but I don't even worry over that. I always tell them, if you can sell it, or whatever... great, if you cannot... the get rid of it however you do....

Okay, so I've been in the middle of all of that stuff, along with getting rid of 2 old computers, an old desk, some speakers, and just some "general" stuff that rather than let me hauled off in the trash... we have a couple of people that come around and pick up some items, especially if there is any metal in them... they sell it to one of our "steel" businesses here. That way those thing get recycled, the guys can get a few bucks out of them, and that means less waste in our landfills for sure.

I know my family gets tickled at me. I can find some real "odd" uses for some stuff, but when I finish, they are totally amazed. A few years back, we had a pretty good sized tree limb come down. IT was pretty straight, and fairly thick. It was also long enough, in my head, I could see it cut into about 18 inch long pieces, and make flower arrangements with them. So, we cut them in a couple of different lengths. I went around my house and found some of my silk flowers, then went to our "Dollar Tree" and picked up a few more, and 'voila', I had three beautiful flower arrangements, at that time for Christmas!!!

I had one for my table, one of the office and one for the living room! Between some left over ribbon, and lace, a few silk flowers, some floral wire... and a bit of imagination, they appeared to be something you may buy at one of these "DIY" sales, where people sell their items they make. Then I got the idea, I would change them for the different holidays. So I had some flowers and things for Valentine's Day, Memorial Day, Easter... Thanksgiving, and one year even St. Patrick's Day! I found some "green silk flowers" and I had some white ones, and with a bit of green and white ribbon, that made a cute centerpiece on a table or on the desk, or sitting in the living room.

OF course, here I go again, taking the "back way" around what I wanted to write about in the beginning of this.

I read an article this morning about an extremely "lucrative" (for the crooks) scam that took place all over this nation, in regard to "false claims" from Medicare. This is such a horrid thing, ANY PHYSICIAN is NOT a true doctor, if they are ripping off their patients. That is called greed, and any one in the medical profession and others are no professional if they take advantage of something as "fragile" as Medicare is. It just burns me to NO END, that the very people that NEED to be seen by physicians, that cannot AFFORD for our Medicare system to go "belly up" are the ones that suffer from this unspeakable crime. Even though they took down the largest fraud ring ever in this, I am sure there are others out there doing it also... and it appears that Medicare has tightened up and is paying more attention to these kind of schemes. Florida of course is a huge one, but there were several states including Texas involved in this.

Due to migraines, chronic pain, fatigue an  ALL THAT GOES along with disabilities also, NEED there disability (Medicare) also to help keep their health hopefully in check. I know of course some of you are not thrilled about the idea of those on disability... but I PAIN into my Social Security and Medicare for over 25 years before I had to file for my disability. So, I don't feel that I've taken advantage of anyone or anything. I just could not work anymore due to all of my health issues, and I've had to accept the fact, they are NOT MY FAULT! The Lupus, Sjogren's, RA, and so on... "just happened"... I've done nothing as far as I know to cause them....


IT took me a long time to understand, I am not to blame... I didn't go and do something within my life, as far as I know to "cause" me to become ill. You would be surprised though how many of us want to blame ourselves for it,

No chronic illness and/or chronic pain issue is FUN! They are all serious, and they change your entire life and your quality of life in many instances is truly sunken into the depths of the unknown... losing friends, spouses, family... to those horrid diseases, that we have little or no control over.

All we can do is take one step in front of the other, one moment at a time... and continue to hold on to what we can do, have, and hope for in the future.....

I've not disappeared at all... just been extremely busy... for one, fighting of two flares, making changes around my home, as you see above, and trying to fit some of the pieces of me, that seemed to have gotten lost in all of the drama... of daily life....


http://www.medpagetoday.com/PublicHealthPolicy/Medicare/52207

Cute Story about Neighborly Neighbors & Their Friendly "Battles" Over the Years

I debated about posting this here first, or putting it on my blog with a link to it here. But, for now I will post it here because it is a "cute" little ordeal that has actually been going on for around 50 plus years. My Dad & Mom lived in the very first house my Dad had built in 1950. It is tiny. 2 small bedrooms, a small living room, a very small dining area that also is where the washer and dry are, a fairly small kitchen & alas the bathroom is just like a tiny box! We are talking about just less than 1,000 sq. feet! Back then that was in some ways considered HUGE! Many just could not afford a "huge" three bedroom brick mansion, with two baths and an attached garage. I begin telling this because you kind of have to get a bit of "background" about the neighborhood, & get the jest of why this is so freaking funny, especially to me. Mom & Dad had (and Mom still has the woman) a couple next door to them that they had known from day one of being there. Over the years they had cook out's together, went dancing together, Dad worked with the husband for many years at EBF etc. The wife, had been a nurse (at one time the only one that delivered babies with the doctors), and she was extremely dedicated and even after she retired, she went back to work for one of our doctors, until he retired, and she had too many issues health wise, so she had to give it up. Anyway, both my parents and them played "penny" poker sometimes on a Friday or Saturday night, went out to eat, and Dad and the husband were always kidding one another, from Dad Calling him a "tight wad", to him calling Dad silly stuff also. They would every once in a while get pissed and they may not talk to one another for a day or so, and then right back to the friendship as it always was. They had 2 boys. They were both several years older than me. And the neighbors house, like ours was very small, about the same size as Mom's & Dad's... and they raised those two boys in the tiny home. She still lives there till this day, just like my Mom... both chose to stay in the home they had always been in since marriage.
She, as a nurse, really did many, many things to help me. She was like a 2nd Mom, and sometimes it felt like my "1st Mom)! LOL... she taught me to crochet, make baby caps, and took me shopping in Dallas when she went... She was always teaching me something or doing something and would usually invite me to come. She is the very reason I so wanted to become a nurse. I "worked" as a volunteer Candy striper, she allowed me to do everything from learning to use the "autoclave" (back then it was used to kill the bacteria etc on the instruments.. there was nothing, or not much disposables back then. They washed, cleaned and then wrapped the packs of what was needed in certain surgeries etc... then put them in the autoclave to sterilize them. I even had my picture in the local paper one year holding the first "Christmas" baby in a red stocking we always made for them to go home in.

So, as you can tell our families were close, almost like being family members to one another. But, if Dad decided to go out and get a "portable gas grill", that family has to "one up" Dad, and have one put in the ground permanently and build a deck around it. If Dad painted the house, so did they. If Dad bought a new truck, you can bet they would have a new vehicle.... LOL, it got to be just funny, because they just could not stand for Dad and Mom to do something, without them feeling the need to also do the same or something similar. She had helped us out over the years when we were ill, or had a health issue, we always went over to talk to her first. But, just after Dad passed away, and just after I got back to Ennis to help Mom out, little did I know that her friend was "helping" Mom with her affairs financially, etc... but SHE bless her soul is just PUSHY as hell. She always wanted to tell everyone what to do, what to say, where to be, and if you did not do what she said, you can bet she would get pissy, and not speak for a day or so... But, as I said just after I got here back in Ennis, Mom & her had "words" over something I think... what I do know is that the woman, who had been like another Mom to me, quit speaking to me also. Even if she met me in the store, I could have ran over her, and several times I looked in her the face and said hello, but she NEVER said a word to me. Now I know my Mom sometimes can say something, & she may not mean it to sound "degrading" or in a bad way, BUT people take it that way. So, I feel my Mom might have said something or the friend did, & whatever it was it really hurt their friendship and mine, and I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! After I got here, Mom no longer needed her "friends advice" so I think that was part of it. She wanted to be able to tell Mom how to kind of "run her life"....now I am here and I am the one helping Mom out with the affairs... Well, about 2 months ago, after YEARS now of not speaking they began to speak a little... thus it is not all patched up but there is a bit of communication between them... NOW comes the FUNNY PART!!!! LOL... Last week I was at Mom's for the most part as they replaced her roof. Well, the gentleman that owned the roofing company came into tell us they were through... and then he said, your neighbor wants me to give her an estimate... MMMM, you must have known one another for a long time!!! We kind of looked at one another weird and asked him why he thought that. Well, Miss Goody-two-Shoes had commenced to telling him Mom should have had that replaced years ago, and blah, blah, blah, about how Mom should do this, & that I may not be giving her the best advice ---HAHAHA ----- We had to laugh in the first place, the ONLY reason for her having her house roofed is because she just cannot stand to be "one-upped" by Mom... and then that is just like her to mouth off about someone, and of course it had to be Mom and I! So, we told him a "condensed" story of the thing, and we all three had a great laugh over it, PLUS HE GOT THE JOB!!!!! So, whether she did need it or not.... I was happy he got the roofing job... And to read me tell the story, it is not quite as funny as "watching" it evolve after all these years... just goes to prove the old saying.. "Some things never change"... she is the same as she was when I was 10 yrs old... and I bet Dad and her Husband are in heaven still teasing one another... and her Mom & Her are, still the same... a few years older but still "friendly rivals"about how Mom should do this, & that I may not be giving her the best advice  ----LOL

(Edited AAI & Decisions of Life) "Murphy's Law... or more like Rhia tumbles once again down the hill..

Dammit!!! I am so Miffed and Ticked off! Something happened and an electrical transformer blew and shut everyone's electricity off!!!!So, when that happened EVEN with a surge protector! So, I am trying to use an very OLD laptop that sucks!!! We are in the process of ordering me a new one, so I am stuck with this for now. I wanted to let everyone know. PLEASE BARE/BEAR or (maybe I sound like a "grouchy old bear)...  with ME a couple of days. I have some of my files on this one, but I have lots on my external hard drive that this old lap top won't work with!!!!It takes what seems like hours to even post here!!!! I am just feeling like hell just opened up and swallowed me today!! Everything that could happen I think happened, I dropped all of some of my pills in the floor and on the cabinet. I went to the market, and dropped a few of my plastics (card) in the floor. You name it, it has happened. Then as I said all of a sudden the lights were gone, and I heard the "bang". And I was the one that called it in. We had no lights for about an hour. lights came in, everything great EXCEPT ME!!! I am not sure I will make another blog post until I get the new one. And I will post this there so anyone coming to my blog will understand. I sat in the floor and literally cried my yes out under my desk, I was SO UPSET!!! This is the LAST thing we needed, We are already strapped for the green stuff, and now I face this. And this is no "loaf of bread" to buy...

UPDATE to the DAY from Hades : 

I did get the new IMac ordered earlier this week. :) I also did get to finance it for UP TO 6 months and no interest charges. That is awesome! I hope to pay it off the first of January, but at least I have an option and do not have to fork over money to them for interest. I got the message this morning that it is on it's way via Fed Ex. It's coming from California. They say "estimated" to arrive by next Tuesday! Let's freaking hope it makes better times than that since Fed Ex has it now. I pray for tomorrow... LOL.. but I have a feeling it will not be delivered tomorrow even if it does arrive in Dallas by tonight or early morning. Although if I would have not stood around trying to decide which one I wanted it may have arrived today. Yes, I know, patience is a virtue... and all things that are good, are worth waiting for... and the days go by quickly, it is a weekend before a holiday, relax... you can do a few things on this "dinosaur" of a laptop. Actually I could do most of my stuff on my I-Pad, which is faster. Yet, the I-Pads' keyboard and myself do not see eye to eye. I have a difficult time doing a huge amount of keying in on it. I do recall that I could use  my wireless (and by the way solar powered) keyboard with it. Although by the time I go through all of that, my new IMac will arrive and it will be a mute point. Besides I have PLENTY I can FIND to do at home. From moving Winter clothes to the front of my "walk-in" (might as well say go in inside ways if your lucky) closet (we have to "invent" closets in this house when we bought it, there were NONE) and putting the Summer stuff at the back, if possible. PLus I can look around and see that as MUCH as I love "knick-knacks" , keepsakes from trips, and just in general vases, glassware and so forth that have some kind of sentimental value to them for me, I have TOO MUCH STUFF now! Our home is very small. And believe me, I've had to get in the "extreme" parts of decorating when we moved in. LOL, and in some ways not just "extreme" more like miraculous ways to make space for everything. I still love it, don't get me wrong, but with all of the problems with my hands these days not wanting to cooperate due to the RA, and the advanced damage in my thumbs especially, I just can't keep all of it washed frequently and/or dusted, and I am beginning to look around, feeling like I "pack rat" as we call those who save everything. 

I know my husband Jim, would say that my type of "rat packing" is more or less a great thing of sorts.  If I save it, then i have some way in the back of my mind I will re-use it. If not then it goes straight to the recycle bin. If it can't be recycled in this silly small town, then I take it either where it can, or give it to a place here in town called "Souls Harbor"... sounds like the name of a place to be "harbored" from being out in the cold or something! LOL! Actually that name has been with it ever since it opened I guess. I recall as a child my parents taking things there. Everyone in town says first thing if you are talking about getting rid of something, take it to Souls Harbor. Actually as crazy as it may sound... many things for instance like my "precious" old computer chairs, old vacuum cleaner, along with several items that either "need" a slight fix, or we decide we don't need that are larger items such as that, we put them in the front lawn out by the street, with a "free" sign. By the time you go inside and come back out in less than an hour it will all be gone!   There are a couple of men that collect scrap metal, old washers, dryers, and furniture... and take it where it can be recycled. As far as anything else, these new light bulbs, plastic bags (if I even have any, I use only reusable ones for the most part), in cartridges, old glasses and anything that can be recycled that I know about, I do so. 

Needless to say, part of this post is definitely about autoimmune illnesses and how they effect our daily lives. Things such as clothes now days with the closet so small, must be arranged as much as possible so I can reach them, or even get to them. I have two racks on one side, and the top one is almost impossible for me to reach up to now, thus my "current" season clothing is put on the lower racks so I can reach them. About the dusting all of "memorabilia" I have. That is another nightmare now days. I was able to do so fairly frequently. Now I do well to get the floor vacuumed, dusting around just where I need to, baking or cooking, doing laundry, and just the daily chores we have in life, much less making more work for myself by having to clean and dust intricate items, or just finding a spot t store them in.  It is about time for me to have a "throw out" party. Everything that I feel is in the way, is not in 6 to 9 months, has been not read (although I find it very hard to get rid of any books)... but magazines go to our local library, good clothing either to our local place that take clothes to help others, or again our Souls Harbor takes good used clothing in and sells it for pennies. 

I know many of you are thinking this post rings a bell with you. Women especially tend to be more sentimental about items such as that. We want to save them for a good memory, or to hand down to our kids, or thinking we just can't throw out something that could be useful for something someday! Then you are ran over by a Mack Truck of Autoimmune Arthritic illness/(es) ; only to discover we may have the "mindset" to keep those things, but our bodies have a totally different opinion!