7 Years Ago

7 Years ago today I smoked my last cigarette. I was a pretty heavy smoker for a number of years. Quitting smoking was one of THE hardest things I have ever done. I couldn't have done it without the patch which I wore the full 10 weeks. There were times that I would rub the daylights out of it trying to get that little extra out of it.
The first 2 weeks were horrible. I had to keep constantly busy. I have never showered so often in my life. It seemed I always felt itchy. I played my guitar constantly trying to keep my hands busy. I couldn't pick up a phone to call anyone because that always went along with smoking.
There are times that I still miss having a cigarette, but those times are less. I'm very glad that I quit although I've put on a great deal of weight since. Addiction is such a hard disease but a real sense of victory comes when you're able to overcome something. I always said if I can do it, anybody can.

Mornings

I'm not really a morning person...yawn, stretch, groan....but this week I've been working 7:30-3:30 every day. That means I'm up at 6 o'clock EVERY SINGLE MORNING! Yikes!

This weekend I'm looking forward to sleeping in and getting lots of rest and relaxation around the house. Maybe a movie, ordering in pizza. Anything that does NOT require getting out of bed so early.

Peace out.........

Read the Want Ads Lately?

SINGLE BLACK FEMALE seeks male companionship, ethnicity unimportant. I'm a very good girl who LOVES to play. I love long walks in the woods, riding in your pickup truck, hunting, camping and fishing trips, cozy winter nights lying by the fire. Candlelight dinners will have me eating out of your hand. I'll be at the front door when you get home from work, wearing only what nature gave me. Call (404) 875-6420 and ask for Daisy, I'll be waiting....

DYSFUNCTIONAL SECTION OF HALLMARK CARDS

1. I always wanted to have someone to hold, someone to love. And now that you've come into my life...
(Inside card) - I've changed my mind.

2. I must admit, you brought religion into my life...
(Inside card) - I never believed in Hell until I met you.

3. As the days go by, I think how lucky I am...
(Inside card) - That you're not here to ruin it for me.

4. Someday I hope to marry...
(Inside card) - Someone other than you.

5. When we were together, you said you'd die for me...
(Inside card) - Now that we've broken up, I think it's time to keep your promise.

6. We've been friends for a very long time...
(Inside card) - What do you say we stop?

7. I'm so miserable without you...
(Inside card) - It's almost like you're still here.

8. Congratulations on your new bundle of joy...
(Inside card) - Did you ever find out who the father was?

9. You are such a good friend. If we were on a sinking ship and there was only one life jacket...
(Inside card) - I'd miss you terribly and think of you often.

I stole this from a blog I often read.........too funny.

10. Looking back over the years we've been together, I can help but wonder...
(Inside card) - What was I thinking?

Big Girls in Holland

This photo is on this computer, I'm not sure why but since it is I thought I'd post it. Here we are in Holland. Yes, this is how they dress. All the time. So we thought we would do as they do. Aren't we cute?

In Other Words....

Last weekend our computer crashed and burned. It wasn't pretty. So, now I have no pictures, nothing to attract anyone to read my blog which, by the way, isn't read by many people anyways.

This week I've been working a lot. A whole lot. A big fat pay check (ca ching ca ching) lot.

Next week? I'm a block head. Yup. In the world of transit that's what I am. Someone who does a block of work. In other words, the same run, the same time, the same bus every day. For a week! Yippee skippee!

I'm living on borrowed computer time with this computer. I took it out of the closet, dusted it off, and hopefully it will work until the new one arrives. It does funny things. Sends emails to people that I didn't send, crashes in the middle of reading other people's blogs, shuts down constantly and keeps telling me my *(&*(
virus blocker isn't updated"

Anyways, until I'm up and running again on a new or improved ' puter, this one will have to do.

.............peace out.

Bad Betty

This is my mom Betty last year when she turned 80. For an old girl she's doing pretty good. She's fit and healthy and apart from losing her eyesight hardly has a reason to see a Dr.
For some unknown reason Chris has always called her Bad Betty. No idea why, I don't even think Chris knows but the name has stuck. Over the years as kids we gave her names..."Big Bucks Betty"...she didn't like that.

A Bad Betty story...my mom goes for power walks every day except when the weather is really bad. She can walk around the lake in 20 minutes that takes an average person 30 minutes. She's fast..I have never been able to keep up with her.

One day as she was zipping by the lake a guy suddenly stepped out of the bushes and opened up his trench coat and with very little imagination "flashed" her. My mom stopped and looked at him in the eye and said "if that's all you've got I wouldn't be showing it off" and continued around the lake. I told you, she's quick.

Another time she was at the mall and she parks a long ways away, you know, just in case another car parks beside her, and when she was loping towards the mall a guy came up to her and asked her if she had any spare change.

Bad Betty says, "No, but I have a peppermint. If you're going to beg from people you should have fresher breath" and gave him a pepper mint. He mumbled something and walked away.
Bad Betty, she's a legend. A crime fighter in the 'hood.

Life Goes On

We have a dog named Maggie. We now have had Maggie for 2 years, we got her from the SPCA, She had been given up 3 times before and so we became her 4th home. She had a lot of issues and needed a lot of tissues then and now. We've had her to a Dog Psychologist, put her in Obedience School and have tried endlessly to work with her. She's made huge improvements in some areas.

One area Maggie still needs to work on is her love for cat food. Now that we have 2 of them who also need feeding on a daily basis, she finds it necessary to eat not only her food but theirs!

The cats are NOT impressed. No wonder they give her "the paw" when she looks at them.

Other than that, it's been just work, work, work around here.

Kit and People in Uniform

I thought I'd tell a little Kit story.........I'm thinkin' my blog's needing a little more material so I'm going to tell a few stories about people. *Some names have been changed to protect the innocent*NOT!!!

Kit loved anyone who wore a uniform. It fascinated him. He held people up in high esteem if they wore a safety vest. He waved at everyone we’d pass on the road and saluted those in uniform. He often found ways of making sure somebody in uniform would come out to the group home where he lived.

One day Kit and I were out in the community and had stopped in one of our favorite coffee places to refresh and Kit spotted a man wearing a vest with his name tag on it. Kit loved to see tags and would point to them gesturing to the person that he wanted to know what it said.

That day it was something like “MAC” and Kit laughed and shook the guy’s hand. “Mac” was intrigued by Kit and asked me where he was from. “Mars” I said, to which Kit laughed uproariously. We would often make up stories to tell people just for fun. Kit had a wonderful sense of humour and trying to fool people was one of his favorite past times. Mac laughed again and shook Kit’s hand pumping it up and down. Then he turned to me and said,

“What a great guy, he makes a great first impression. When you meet him it’s like a whole bad day just gets washed away.” I’ll never forget that.

Kit loved to bring people in uniform to the group home. One time he cut the outside cable wire which provided the feed to the fax machine. Not too serious until the Manager wasn’t able to fax something. It was then discovered the cable had been cut.

Another time he cut the phone line. This time it was a little more serious because the Group Home was out in the country and really quite isolated. These days all staff have cell phones so we did have an alternative in case of emergency but he still got a talking to for that one.

The most memorable uniform story was the night we had to call the Paramedics to remove a violent client from the home. Two Paramedics and an ambulance arrived so Kit showed them into the house. Because of the state of emergency the Police were also called. They parked their cars out front and as staff we weren’t aware of that.

After the client was removed and the crisis was over we thought everyone had left. However, the policemen were still out front sitting in their squad cars making their reports. Just as we thought it was quiet in the home the front door opened and in walked one of the big burly policemen holding hands with Kit. In his other hand he held a long stemmed flower. Kit had followed the policemen to their cars and presented them with flowers as his way of thanking them for helping us deal with the crisis.

I Refuse to Change

I haven't been able to update my blog because I keep getting messages that I need to switch over to Beta Blogger and from what I've read, it's a real pain. Heck no, I won't go!

So for the time being I'm being stubborn and staying over on this side. Until I find a new blog site that works for me, this blog will just have to do because it's allowing me to post this fine morning.

Here's a shout out to all my peeps...............keep the faith!

Fridges

When we were in Hawaii an interesting phenomena would occur daily. We were staying in Waikiki overlooking the canal (for those who know the island). Directly behind us there was a street that ended at the canal. On the corner of the street stood a fridge. All by itself. hmmmm I thought, what on earth? In this land of tourists, surely someone will trip when they walk by? Or bump it in the road causing a head on collision with some poor fella from Okapokie who's just rented a nice shiny car... and then, by the end of the day the fridge was gone. One day there was a washer and dryer combo on the other side of the street. Gone as well. Give it 24 hours and they ascend into appliance heaven or wherever it is good appliances go.

One night we had been out a little later than normal (10 ish) and were walking back to the condo when we saw a fridge coming towards us. On wheels with a little man pushing it from behind. He got it to the curb and then couldn't get the wheels up onto the sidewalk from the road. He started asking innocent bystanders for help.

We got out of there fast. Chris had visions of liability issues dancing in her head when all I could think of was 'what about if I hurt my back' how could I explain that? "Well, you see it was like this, I saw a fridge walking down the road and as a responsible human being trying to do my part on the planet I decided to give it a hand and lift it to the curb where it could socialize with all the other fridges".

Anyways, it was still there when we left. Apparently it was left on the wrong side of the road for fridges.

It's a Good Life

This time last week we were getting ready to leave Hawaii. A flurry of housekeeping, packing of suitcases, last minute checks of tickets, luggage, carry-on do's and don'ts, waiting for shuttle bus, it all happened so fast. Before we knew it we were on a plane heading home.
I always go through a time of adjustment when I leave my beautiful island. Every time I get on the plane going home I ask God, why? Why can't I live here all the time? I love it so much.

I have my life here and it's a good life. I'm very blessed in so many ways. Sure there have been rough times and times I'd rather forget and that really bad time in the 90's when I lost everything and felt my life was over, but these days my life is good.
I'm glad to be home again. It's been a busy week, I've worked every day and then some OT on top of the day but I still have a little part in my heart that will always miss Hawaii until the next visit.

I'm glad that I got to show Chris some of it, my favorite places to eat, places we used to hang out in college days, beaches we suntanned at, it all seems so long ago now. A different life.
So, back to work this week and everyday life. Have a good week everyone and take time to appreciate the ones you love.

Aloha!!!

Well, after a bumpy plane ride home, we're back. Very tired but feeling very thankful for a wonderful vacation. I'll blog more later but just want to post some photos for now.

One of the places we spent a lot of time was the rooftop lanai of Becky's building. It was on the 37th floor and had an awesome view.

One day we took a drive out to the Waianae coast and enjoyed some beach time at a beautiful resort there.

We even got to see one of my fave TV characters, although he was looking a little flat that day, LOL!

We treated ourselves with a night out...a sunset dinner cruise and then the magic of polynesia show. Both were wonderful and well worth the money spent.

From Hawaii...with Aloha

Here we are in Hawaii....the sights, the sounds, the smells, it's all so familiar and yet strange in a way. It's been so many years since I've lived here and called this island home but yet it still feels like home to me. This trip is special because I'm here with Chris and sharing my love of Hawaii with her.

We've done some sightseeing and lots of walking. Today we spent the day with a friend that I met for the first time last year, Dana. She's a great tour guide and gives a great historic tour of the island. We enjoyed a lot of laughs with her.

Not sure what the rest of the week will bring, the time goes by so fast. We don't want to waste a moment but at the same time are here to relax and just take it easy.

Aloha...will post pics when I get home.

Before I Go....I Have One More Post

I saw this on someone else's blog and know it was meant for me! If you've ever seen me in the morning you know it's true. I don't function until after I've had my coffee. I used to smoke too so then it was really bad. I'm even bringing my own little personal coffee maker to Hawaii just because I know my friend only drinks iced tea and won't have one. Of course Timmy's coming along.......how Canadian is that!

Hawaii No Ka Oi

Not sure how much time or availability I will have to blog but we're leaving tomorrow for 10 days in Hawaii. I am praying for a good rest and rejuvenation for both of us as well as sunshine! I'm so looking forward to just getting away, especially from the snow that's lying outside my window right now.

Aloha nui loa

Seniors

I'm getting old. I feel worn out and tired. All the time. Recently I got together with some of my old work buddies and although I'm the youngest of the group I feel as old as they do. One of them sent me this photo. Pretty practical I think.

Bryce

1 year ago today Chris had the difficult decision to put down her beloved cat Bryce. He had been her cat for 9 years and they 'belonged together'. She always called him her rock. He was loyal and faithful and had a big attitude. I had never lived with a cat before and Bryce won me over to his kingdom.


Chris always talked for Bryce, like she knew exactly what he was thinking. His favorite word was 'dammit'. After he died we thought we might name our next cat Dammit. You know, "Dammit, get down right now". "Dammit, you're late again", it goes on and on.

We didn't but we thought about and laughed about it lots, knowing that Bryce would definitely approve.


We've been blessed with 2 little bundles of joy since but today we take a moment and remember Bryce, the handsomest man cat. Here's to you bud, dammit!

I Don't Know This Dog

....not my dog but it could be.

7 More SLeeps