Month: October 2020

#SoCS for 10/31/20

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Happy freaking Halloween. Time once again for the magic that is #SoCS where our host with the most Linda G Hill gets us all together to stream. Yea I said stream. It’s a thing y’all. To join in, here are the rules and ping back.

Linda writes and I re-write “Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is “trick.” Use it any way you’d like. Have fun!“

Trick or Treat, Smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don’t, I don’t care, I’ll pull down your underwear. 

Yea right! After you smell my feet you’re going to be compelled to feed me something good. And let’s just all keep our pants on shall we? I have to wonder about some of these rhymes. Don’t you?

I mean seriously Meredith Grey Who came up that that gem dandy? Trick or Treat, Smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If someone said that to me, I’d be all thanks but no thanks. Though teasingly I say my feet smell like roses. I really don’t do any physical labor or anything to make them stinky.

Good night nurse! How in the world did we get here?

Trick! The prompt was trick!! And this is stream after all. And that was my first thought bubble. Now that we cleared all that up, the how we got here answer, let’s move on.

The ghosts and goblins

Ready for a night of fun

In which they go door to door

Craftily asking the question trick or treat?

Knowing they prefer a treat over smelly feet

Hey! Maybe that is where the saying came from …

Or not.

Google it!

Wishing everyone out there a safe Halloween filled with many more treats than tricks. Unless they’re card tricks. Really good card tricks that make you gasp with awe and amazement.

As always, more to come.

Friday Reflections ~ 10/30/20

Published on by J-Dub11 Comments

About this time 14 years ago to the day I was in a unit meeting. Typical Monday. The voice mail I received once the meeting wrapped rocked my world. I wrote about it here …

J-Dub’s: A Series of Unfortunate Events – The Final Installment – Aptly Subtitled Truth is Stranger Than Fiction

Today I took a personal day and used it for time to reflect because introvert that I am, I get off on that stuff. Thinking!! Not for the faint of heart <3. Since that fateful day, life has continued to provide her “lessons”. Yay US! To shake the blues, Lulu Belle and I took off for greener pastures. We went to the famed Riverwalk since we could socially distance outdoors.

Here is what we spied with our little eyes …

  • Quack
    Quack
  • We named him Marshall
    We named him Marshall
  • The light created something unique
    The light created something unique

I didn’t get a picture of the rabid squirrel y’all but one was right there by me. I was watching the ducks and he was watching me. I swear. He was about to jump off the tree and eat my face. Haha. Have I told you how much squirrels scare me? Have I ever mentioned my pet squirrel Perry? Not my pet now but when I was a kid. Funny story for another day.

After the Riverwalk stroll, we went to a touchless carwash. Then since we were in the neighborhood, I took Lulu past all of my former abodes. Well first we drove by my Mamaw’s house. I never lived there because she told mom she wanted to live close enough for us to visit but not TOO close. She would have taken us all in of course. That’s what she did after all but that too is another story for another day.

Then we drove by Glamis where I lived until I was four. Mom married my daddy and we moved to Howerton, stop #3 then at 19, I was back on Glamis for a year before moving to Huth (B & my first home) before heading our final home – Casa de Dub’s. Not to worry none of those former addresses are my passwords. I use password123. Or do I? Only the shadow knows. I shouldn’t kid about that because I may have jinxed myself.

Or not … I’m finally learning I have no control over “stuff” like that or anything else. Rather all I can control are my reactions. No more beating myself up for not reaching some standard that in the big scheme of things doesn’t matter. I’m not giving up either. I ‘m letting go and damn that feels marvelous.

As always more to come.

#WATWB ~ 10/30/20

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The end of October snuck up on me. Time for the monthly #WATWB extravaganza. I shared the story of Wyatt to my personal FB page when it happened, now going out to a larger audience. We should all be like Wyatt!!

McDonald’s worker pays for family’s meal when mom forgets wallet; mom raises over $35K for him in return

#WATWB is a blog hop on the last Friday of every month. Here are the intention and rules. In darkness, be light!

This month’s co-hosts are:
Sylvia McGrath,
Mary Giese ,
Shilpa Garg,
Sylvia Stein, and Belinda Witzenhausen

💡

Funny Math ~ 10/29/20

Published on by J-Dub7 Comments

I have not done one of these posts in a while. I have one related to the cost of prescription drug prices. Shocker I know! Such a racket. All of it!!

I have taken Crestor since 2003. I am on the very lowest therapeutic dose of 5 mg. Then I quarter it with my handy dandy pill splitter gadget. Originally I did this not to save money but to reduce the chance of side effects being generally pill adverse.

Somewhere along the way my insurance coverage changed. I was no longer fully covered at the discounted rates. I fought to get refills in 2017 eventually getting a “coupon” from the manufacturer. Since I quarter the pills, I have a year left of that 2017 order. To be safe and check out the current RX situation, I looked into a refill when I had my tele-med appointment earlier this year.

I went through a whole rigmarole to get pre-approved since for non-generic name brands that is now required. Even after approvals, my cost was $900 smack-a-roos. I was told the reason is I had yet to meet my deductible. Once that happens, the cost is only $221. Still way more than what I paid under a prior plan when everything was $30 brand and $7 generic.

Now the funny math. To get back to the $30/$7 plan, the cost of my insurance is about $1800 more a year. I am obviously better off paying the $900 barring no additional medical bills. Then I remembered some sage advice from a former mentor who said “I’d rather pay the doctor when I need him or her instead of an insurance company “just in case” I need to see a doctor”.

I know I cannot forgo health insurance. That is the main reason I still work. After 36 years of being a penny pincher, we probably could survive on my pension and 401K. But, we’d have to take out a mortgage for health insurance. Yeppers I realize I am being extreme. Maybe not a mortgage but perhaps a lien for a mid-sized car loan. And don’t get me started on property taxes! Oy Vey!!!

As always, more to come.

Heartbroken ~ 10/27/20

Published on by J-Dub20 Comments

After six days on the job, Lulu got her walking papers. Thanks to our unreliable ISP. Or thanks to nothing. No one’s fault.

B seems to think he can save the day. Put in hard wired lines instead of wi-fi but they told her too late for that. At least they were kind. Her supervisor said she would keep Lulu in mind for when they bring people back into the office.

I want to rant at our ISP, tell them that they owe my daughter a job. Maybe then we’d get good service if she was work from home in one of their call centers? Yet I realize my bitching and moaning does no good. It is what it is. Sadly.

This job was all wrapped up in her self esteem. After all those rejections. Telling her it is not her fault does not make it better. Instead it is just more realization that she will have to pound the virtual pavement and find something else.

When one door closes … another one opens. If not a door, a window. Too soon 😦 Ya too soon 😦

That is all. Just had to get it out of my system.

As always, more to come.

Share Your World ~ 10/27/20

Published on by J-Dub3 Comments

Melanie has some great questions on tap for us this week. If you’d like to join in, here are the rules and ping back. And awaaaayyy we go …

Questions:

What’s the tallest building you’ve been to the top of? I dislike heights and stay away from them as much as possible. As a kid, each summer, mom took us downtown for a day to play tourist on the River Walk. We’d go to the Hilton Hotel and ride the elevator to the top floor and look out across the city from the roof top pool. But I guess the tallest building would have been the one next door – the Tower of the Americas. A few times I stayed on the ground while everyone else went up without me. It was the 70s, guess mom thought it was safe to leave me there. Better than me having a melt down in the elevator.

What do you do to keep fit? I don’t keep fit. LOL. Well I sort of do, half way. I walk most mornings and try to watch what I eat. But at times I go off the wagon. Every day is a new chance to start over food-wise and make better choices. I always feel better when I do.

What’s your jack-o-lantern carved to look like? There are so many cute stencils these days. Lulu just carved her Pumpkin to look like the dog from “Nightmare Before Christmas”

Do you have hope or have you lost it? Depends on when you ask me. Now at this moment, I am decidedly neutral. Yet minute by minute I change my mind like some absurd hamster on a wonky wheel. Loop-de-loop. Hope, no hope, hope, no hope. I have written many posts calling the metaphorical Hope a fickle bitch. I have not done that in a while. Good for me. Maybe my mental health is improving.

GRATITUDE QUESTION:

Feel free to share something you’re grateful for!  Images and photos or poems, essays or free writing (stream of consciousness) pieces are all acceptable!  AND you don’t have to do this part, it’s always optional! My blessings are bountiful. I often wonder how I got so lucky. Taking nothing for granted. Today I am most grateful for B. With a look he brings me peace of mind which I have needed these last few weeks.

#SLS for 10/25/20

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Ghost/Pumpkin/Trick/Treat/Witch is on tap for today. No thought needed. Even if there are multiples of this song, it is the only one that came to mind and the ear worm stuck. I picked Ghost Town. Writer(s): Lambert Adam, Karlsson Erik

Ab fab! IMO. haha

Died last night in my dreams
Walking the streets
Of some old ghost town
I tried to believe
In God and James Dean
But Hollywood sold out

Saw all of the saints
Lock up the gates
I could not enter
Walked into the flames
Called out your name
But there was no answer

And now I know my heart is a ghost town
My heart is a ghost town
My heart is a ghost town
My heart is a ghost town

Died last night in my dreams
All the machines
Had been disconnected
Time was thrown at the wind
And all of my friends
Had been disaffected

Now, I’m searching for trust
In a city of rust
A city of vampires
Tonight, Elvis is dead
And everyone’s spread
And love is a satire

And now I know my heart is a ghost town
My heart is a ghost town
My heart is a ghost town
My heart is a ghost town

There’s no one left in the world
I’m gunslingin’
[Regular version:] Don’t give a fuck if I go
[Music video version:] Don’t give a damn if I go
Down, down, down
I got a voice in my head that keeps singing
Oh, my heart is a ghost town

My heart is a ghost town
Oh, my heart is a ghost town
(Said, my heart)
My heart is a ghost town
My heart is a ghost town