IT’S WEDNESDAY AND I AM IN FLORIDA!!!

For all my complaining about the heat, I love my friends here. Everyone came over yesterday and today, gave me big kisses and hugs and said how much they missed us. Oddly enough, that never happens in Delaware, with our neighbors there. I wonder why. 🙂 Three of the seven houses on the street have people living in them that do not talk to us, and a few of the others don’t even know our names after eight years. Oh, well.

We drove down to the beach today, had lunch and drinks in our favorite restaurant, and picked up my new license plate!!! The plate will say 5unny. The 5 really does look like an S from a few feet. My car looks great. I am so glad I splurged on the protective cover.  

News on the food poisoning front. I called my sister and told her how angry her Holier Than Thou letter made me. She then told me that my aunt told her if she never spoke to me again, it would be alright! If my sister had just called and said call Aunt J; everything would have been fixed in five minutes.  Here’s a good sunny day song, to give you a feeling of Clearwater Beach!

Patty

Here’s a little TidBit About Me

 

I have bipolar I. That’s the fun kind. Some people think that bipolar is so much better than depression, that you are happy when you are manic. So not true! I become enraged, empowered, and dangerous, and then I get depressed. Right now, I’m kicking a**, and taking names. I am so mad I could spit bricks. So what set poor little Pattykins off today?

I had three things happen today, and that’s what set me off to write my last missive on here. 

1. The Big Guy failed to say a heart-felt goodbye to my daughter (his step) since we will be gone for 8 weeks. He loathes her, but he could fake it and tell her he’ll miss her. 

2. The stupid kid from next came over and asked how I wanted the yard mowed while we were in FL. WTF???  TBG sked his mother if she’d do it. She does their lawn. She has a lazy husband and she mows their yard every week.

She must have told Stupid Kid to do it. I asked Stupid Kid SIX timeis this summer to work for me and he blew me off. I kept waiting for him to come over, and he never did.  I was pretty surprised when he showed up today. I don’t think he expected my pissed off face. He never seemed interested in mowing the yard, but I guess his mom either told him he had to, or explained how much money he’d make every week. Short, little tyrant. He’ll get $15 for the lawn $10 for the apples, and $5 for weed whacking. I do it every week for free. 

3. My sister wrote me this nasty letter, where she basically said I was very wrong to mention on FB that I got food poisoning, because some people took it personally. How do you take vomit the wrong way??? It’s ok; I unfriended my entire family.

I’m actually feeling better. Nothing like two vents in two hours to cheer me up. 

Thanks for reading,

Patty

 

 

Let’s Vent, Shall We? Praise publicly, criticize privately.

I just got a whopper of an email from my sister. It seems as though my 90 year-old aunt and her 65 year-old daughter were hurt that I posted on FB the following:  “two words: food poisoning”. This was the evening of Aug 10. My Aunt’s 90th birthday party was in NJ that afternoon, and I really am sure I got it there. I threw up on the way back to DE, and continued to throw up for another eight hours.

My aunt FBed me and said no one else got food poisoning so I must have gotten it from DRINKING TOO MUCH at the party, or it was from someplace else I had eaten. I did not eat breakfast that day, and since we were on the road, I had McDonald’s yogurt for dinner. I was already not feeling good. Oh, and I didn’t drink booze at the party. I had a ginger ale.

My sister just wrote me the following letter:

Dear Patty

I went out to the Fair Haven Firemen’s Fair with Aunt Jeanne on Friday evening.  She brought up something with me about you, that I thought you should know. 

I am not on Facebook, so I don’t know what you wrote.  I am guessing that you wrote something like, “I got food poisoning at my aunt’s 90th birthday party.”  On the surface, that might seem like an innocent comment. 

Aunt Jeanne did not take it that way.  As she talked with me about it last evening, she was angry, embarrassed, upset, and really hurt by your comment.  Clearly she was if she told me about it on August 22, and the party was August 10th~~~she is still hurt.  She said that her entire family read the comment (I guess everyone is on Facebook except me these days) and that she was also very upset because Joan hosted the party, that it reflected poorly on her as well. 

In fact, after you posted, Joan asked me and Jay whether we had gotten ill from the food.  We hadn’t. 

I cannot imagine that you set out to hurt both Aunt Jeanne and Joan by your comment.  That’s what happens with “unintended consequences.”   

I learned a long time ago in teaching “Praise publicly, criticize privately.”  

If I were you, I would not post anything else about the party on Facebook, even if it’s positive.  The damage has already been done.  But you might like to either call or write a note to Aunt Jeanne, saying that you are sorry that you hurt her feelings.  

By the way, she does not know that I am writing this e-mail to you.  But our aunt is 90 years old, and not going to live to live forever. I think you should apologise. 

from your sister, 

The Queen of Tact. 

 

So, dear readers, what do you think? Would this totally piss you off??? Praise publicly, criticize privately?

 

i wasn’t criticizing! I was simply stating I had food poisoning. That’s it. And yes, I think I got it at the party. 

Patty

 

 

It’s Amazing I Survived My Childhood. Chapter 2

I’m not sure if I was planned or not. I am nearly 10 years younger than my brother, and 3 years younger than my sister. There was a set of twins in there, and I wonder if I would be here if they survived. I don’t think I would want to have FIVE CHILDREN in ten years. My mom was nearly 40 when she had me, so maybe she was worn down a bit. 

It is amazing I survived. 

My siblings and cousins wanted to use me as a guinea pig. If I survived whatever they wanted to try, then they’d do it. I was superfluous. Until I was nearly seven, we lived next door to my aunt, uncle and my two cousins. I guess you’d call it a duplex.

At that time, there was no door from the one house to the other. I had the run of both houses, and I liked going up to my cousins’ attic because they had a train up there, and some type of basketball game that if you turned it on the players kind of vibrated around. It amused me as a five year old, but was probably a boring game for older kids and that’s why it was in the attic. One day, my sister and my cousin Billy told me that there was a secret passage to the other side of the house. All I had to do was walk behind the wall, and I’d be in our house! Oh, God. I am so glad I never did it, or I wouldn’t be writing this. I would like to think I was savvy enough to realize I was being tricked, but I was probably too scared, so I didn’t die that day.

Two yards away from our house was Professional Pharmacy. There was a garage with a flat roof right behind it. it had to be at least 10 feet high. My sibs and cousins were jumping off it onto the grass, and I wanted to try and they said, “SURE!” My mother came out just in time to watch her four year old flying through space onto the ground. I am not what was said to the older kids, but they never jumped off that roof again. 

Patty

 

 

Krispy Kremes

I’m not sure if all of you are lucky enough to have a Krispy Kreme Doughnut shop near you. It’s kind of a Southern thing. When I was a little kid in Norfolk, Va, we would buy KKs at lunch for a nickle  to raise money for something. I have no idea where the money went, perhaps for new Nun outifts, but I loved those Krispy Kremes.

Fast forward to 2000. They opened a KK right near me! I was thrilled, I went a few times when they first opened, and a few times after that. Within two years they closed it. Maybe the North isn’t ready for KK’s fatty goodness. They beat Dunkin Donuts by a long shot, and people seem to eat them up. They don’t know what they are missing.

They opened ANOTHER KK about 20 minutes south of here. It seems to be doing really well because it’s across from the Wilmington Airport, and next to BJs. My daughter and I went there and had two donuts each, and then another one later. I feel a little sick from all that sugar and fat, but it was worth it.

Patty

P.S. This little girl is absolutely frightening.  

I’m From Delaware, Man!

Truthfully, I’m not, but I am naturalized; I have lived in the First State since 1981. I love it here! This is problematic because my husband, The Big Guy, does not. I don’t get it. He’s from Iowa. You’d think he’d think the weather here would be several steps up from Des Moines. He must have been living in FL in one of his incarnations. Perhaps he was a lizard, or a tree frog (please excuse any humor that falls flat).

From 1780 to nearly 1900, my line of Kennedys lived in Newfoundland, Canada. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I love fall and winter and dislike summer and LOATHE fall. My cousin did tell me that his grandfather (my great uncle), said he never warmed up until he moved to Virginia. Life is a lot more comfortable up there now what with electricity and everything. I have another cousin who lives up there and takes picture of icebergs to show us. 

My husband has decided that Florida is his true home. I should have never have taken him there! 🙂

I am looking forward to visiting Fl this time. My doctor says FL will be good for the RA. I have some really great friends down there. 

I’d better start packing! 

Patty

It’s Amazing I Survived My Childhood

I grew up on Army bases up and down the Eastern Seaboard, South Korea, and Germany. One of my fondest memories, is one of those things  WHAT SHOULD NEVER DO. The amazing thing is I did this with my parents’ blessing. Perhaps they were hoping the THIRD KID would vanish, like the eagles nearly did. 

When we lived in Norfolk, VA several times each summer, soldiers would drive down all of the streets on base and spray DDT fog from the Jeeps. They wore gas masks. You’d think this would get our parents thinking that perhaps this was not the world’s best idea. 

The stuff smelled great! When we ran in this thick bluish cloud of poisoned gas, you could hardly see your friends! We ran after the truck as far as we could, never thinking of what it might be doing to us.

My parents each smoked 3 packs of cigarettes a day, and I’ve lived this long, so I am not sure if the Jeeps of Death will affect me. I do know that in Korea I had this wonderful pet lab rat named Schroeder. They only fogged with DDT one time, and Schroeder died that night. That’s when I started thinking that perhaps running after pesticides wasn’t in my best interest. 

I don’t think they should bring DDT back, ever. It almost killed off the eagles. Unfortunately, ticks are resilient, and back in full force and so is Lyme disease, so we weren’t able to kill that off. The Ice Man is over 5,000 years old and he had Lyme disease. That was back before it was named after a town in CT, and before DDT.  I know we almost irradicated the planet, but I still look back fondly on the many times I nearly killed myself.

Did they do this in towns, or was this the Army’s way of getting rid of dependents? Let me know. 🙂

Remind me to tell the Patty Jumps Out of a Third Story Window tale. 

Practically Poisoned Patty

It’s Tuesday. Let’s Catch Up.

Hi, 

We’re still in Delaware and will be until Sunday. That’s fine with me; there’s so much to do, like pick up the apples, mow the lawn, stop the mail, and all those other fun things. I love mowing the lawn; I think about nothing for the entire time I mow.

Our living room is our staging area for the trip. Every tool we need is in there, including a set of metal saw horses. 

A musical recap: last week we saw The Beach Boys, and tonight we saw Jimmy Buffet. Jimmy Buffet’s concert had just a little more energy, but then again he’s 67, versus Mike Love’s 73. Great concerts! Jimmy Buffet’s concert had LOTS of beer. We wound up having a Weyerbacher Pumpkin Ale. If you like big beers, it’s very good. 

One little fact: even though technically I am NOT a Jersey girl, I lived in Monmouth County the longest I lived anywhere until I was over 30. I have seen Bruce Springsteen in concert 25 times. First  concert ever: Alice Cooper in Germany. Some guy offered me a joint, and I almost had a heart attack. I thought the Polizei were going to drag me away. Worst concert: Doobies. I love them, but I thought my ears would bleed. Too loud! Comment and let me know your first, best and worst concerts ever. I have so many favorite concerts, I’ll have to think of the best one.

I seem to be in remission with the rheumatoid arthritis. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t hurt. It does. It just means I don’t feel like digging my grave and crawling in it today. 

We drove to waaay up in New Jersey two days ago, and we are going back on Thursday. Ugh. TBG forgot the EZ pass, so we probably have at least $100 in tolls. Yay, it wasn’t me!

Sorry this was neither thrilling or funny. Just a regular week in beautiful Delaware. 

Patty

 

 

 

 

I Fought the Bed, and the Bed on.

I am better today as far as keeping my temper down. The pain is inching back, but I don’t feel like sticking a fork in the eye of the next person who says, “Ha(ve) a goo(d) one”. Have a good what??? This is what many cashiers say in Philly and Delaware. They don’t even pronounce it right. They deserve forks.

I got my results from my Lyme disease test.I tested positive for one Lyme antibody, IgG P23. If anyone knows if this means I get antibiotics, let me know.

I have five more hours to myself!!! The Big Guy took his daughter to Asbury Park, NJ for the day. I’ve been alone since 8:00 AM! First time in years and years.

So far, I stayed in bed and read, talked on the phone to one of my daughters for over an hour, and spent $400. I bought one of those pillow foam toppers for our mattress. This thing weighs a ton. It took over twenty minutes to unwrap it (they used enough Saran Wrap to cover an entire mastodon). It then took 10 minutes to unwrap the foam from this teeny tiny roll they made. Next, I had to try and get it to lie flat. So far, it looks like waves wrapped in a giant pillow case. I had a little trouble with the pillow case because it was similar to stuffing that mastadon into a baggie. It’s now on the bed. Notice the large lump down the middle of the bed. TBG will love it. I think it’s on wrong, but at this point, I’m too tired to care. I fought the bed, and the bed won.

This May Make the Last Post Better