THE GREAT "MISSING TOILET PAPER" SAGA!

The Great ‘Missing Toilet Paper’ Saga!

Or, where can it all be, and why?
Part 1

It was a dark and dreary night; the dark clouds hung low in the sky. Even the streetlights seemed dim as I drove down the avenue. I kept my eyes on the road, but still made myself aware of the stores I was passing. Then suddenly, a few
blocks down, I saw a beacon of light:  a DOLLAR GENERAL! My heart beat faster, as my foot pressed harder on the accelerator. Fulfilment of my quest was near!

I swung my car into the almost empty parking lot, quickly got out and went through the door. I had to stop for just a moment to adjust my eyes to
the brightness of the store’s lights, and also to get my bearings. I saw my objective and quickly walked to it. To my bewilderment and surprise, the shelves
were empty. “Where is all the toilet paper?” I asked the cashier. With an astonished look she said, “I don’t know. I just don’t know, we just
seemed to have a run on it. I didn’t even get a chance to grab one for myself.  Poof, they were all gone!” she continued.

I shook my head, said thank you and left. Surely this was just a fluke, I thought to myself as I got back into the car. I continued to drive, and as if it weren’t enough, the clouds opened up now, making this dreary night even more dreary - it
began to rain.

I stopped at a Walgreens ... no toilet paper. What was going on? This was quickly going from an idle purchase to a downright quest. No quest was going to better of me. Onward I drove. I continued to drive and make stops:  Family Dollar, Ollie’s, Publix. Nada, not even one single sheet on the barren shelves. Sitting in the car, I began to worry a little. “What do I do now?” In a flash it came to me! The savior
of all saviors:  24-hour Walmart!! They always come through! My foot firmly on the gas pedal, I was there in minutes. Without hesitation, I went quickly to
my appointed area. I stopped dead in my tracks as I stared at the empty shelves where packages and packages of TP had once been. Dejected, I walked back to my car. I sat there, frozen. What could be happening? Why the rush and hoarding of TP? Granted, I thought, the entire world is going through a
crisis, with the coronavirus, but you don’t even get diarrhea with this, so what’s with the crazy rush on purchasing toilet paper.

Being a Buddhist, I found myself contemplating TP and its use.

Part 2:  Questions
I began thinking about cavemen. What did cavemen do to keep themselves “fresh”? And after that, what did they do in the 1700’s, 1800’s? Just who was the genius who thought up TP, and when did we get toilet paper on a roll?

Deep, deep questions. We all know there is only one way to get answers to any question the world may have. GOOGLE!!

So, here I sit in my running car, in the dark, in a Walmart parking lot, with the rain coming down, contemplating the current biggest questions of the universe: Who invented TP and where is it all now.

Part 3:  Answers
Let’s start with cavemen. Now, I don’t know any cavemen, nor do I know anyone who has ever known one. To my knowledge, there was no written language for thousands and thousands of years. I have also never seen a hieroglyphic that
shows a caveman on a ‘potty’ or even a bathroom. However, we do have someone who has allll the answers. You, of course, remember George
Orwell’s “1984” where big brother is watching. Now, in 2020, we know now
who big brother is:  GOOGLE!!

According to Google, the cavemen used grass, mud, water, leaves and like ‘stuff.’ Let us move through the years to the 1600’s and 1700’s, what was used in those days? First let us recall what the fashions were at those times. Dresses with
petticoat after petticoat after petticoat underneath. Then underneath all of that,
something like knickers that went down to the knee. I’d like to know how they were even able to go to the bathroom, much less wipe themselves. But according to Google they were able to do both. And they were still using leaves, grass, and mud, the same as the cavemen. The very rich used wool, hemp and lace. Then when we became an agrarian society, the wipe of choice became CORN COBS. I can’t even contemplate using those. Corn cobs were the wipe of choice up until and
even after the invention of toilet paper in 1857. The genius who invented toilet paper for specific use in the bathroom was entrepreneur Joseph Gayetty. His TP was aloe infused manila hemp, sold in Kleenex-like boxes of 500 sheets for fifty cents. It didn’t go over well, because you didn’t have to pay for corn cobs.

When flushable toilets became the rage, corn cobs went out, TP came in. Toilet paper, as we know it, didn’t evolve until the 1930’s.
Well. here I was in a Walmart parking lot, darkness all around, and the clouds getting darker and the now pouring rain. It was now time for me to give up my quests for both knowledge and toilet paper and go home.

Google as usual had done its job and although filled with newfound knowledge, I was still toilet paperless.

As Scarlett O’Hara once said, “Tomorrow is another day!”

P

My Mexican poetry

                              
I LOVE YOU

  we lie together, our bodies barely touching
your rhythmic breathing           so comforting
                                to my soul
    l lay my hand barely touching your chest
                and feel the beat of your heart
                              I’m content
                                  Happy
                  I want to wake you and say
                                I  love  you!




                       THE OLD COUPLE

        AN OLD COUPLE WALK THROUGH
                                THE PARK
         I CAN SEE THEM QUITE CLEARLY
        THEY WALK SLOWLY, CAREFULLY
                       THEY  HOLD HANDS
        HE HELPS HER  - SHE HOLDS HIM
DO THEY WALK TO THE END OF THEIR
                                     DAYS        




              I LOVE YOU (IV)

We run between the raindrops
                        Hand and hand
          Hurrying along our way
The moon peeks it’s
                   pale, yellow face
                          from behind
                 a dark, grey cloud
The wind whispers
                  through the trees
        soft, romantic murmurs
The rain stops
                                We stop
Long enough to say
                    I LOVE YOU




                A Bright New Beginning

                            Tonight
                 The rain is different—
               It falls like, shinny beads
     Attached one to one by invisible thread

               Thousands of tiny beads
           Reflecting the light from the
                  carriage house lamp
       and splattering on the pavement
  The night rain washes away the sins of
                            The day
     And gives us a bright new beginning



Mexico




Almost 10,000 words   well not qiute...this is some of the poetry I wrote when I spent several months in mexico city many years ago.  It was possibly the best time of my life.  AND I certainly wish I were there now!!

                        Love Abounds

      a father at the bus stop
                 knees beside his son
     one arm caressing his child
                the other points to a distant object
               the child listens  intently
              little eyes turn to search the horizon
   
                      LOVE ABOUNDS

   

                            COBWEBS ON MY MIND
The roar of the ocean
      The screeching seagulls overhead
          The slight rustle of palm frons in the ever so warm breeze
Waves crashing on the beach
                then receding back into the blue-gray ocean
                         allowing the breeze to blow and the sun to shine
                                                         on all the creatures of the earth

                                   COFFEE

"There's nothing like a cup of coffee, on
                           a rainy day", he said

"Yes," she replied in a dazed manner of
               someone shaken from deep thought

"Rainy days are great".  He went on

She slowly raised her head and
             looked at him, smiled a wistful smile

He understood.  Smiled a warm smile back,
                            and left her to her thoughts

Whatever works..this time anout...Nancy & Normandie & a tale of two views!

Whatever works ..this time about nancy & normandie..a tale of two views!
I have mentioned previously that Nan fractured her leg in 2 places and is in a cast from knee to toes.  Since we live in a home that requires going up a flight of stairs to the living areas and Nan can not negotiate them.
So, we have spent the last 2 weeks in local motels.  The first motel was one that had been run down and then purchased by a man who totally revamped it.  He made it beautiful.  Probably, now, the loneliest little local town motel we have.  He has made each individual room a different theme.  The Christmas room, the African, the Key West, Honeymoon, Grandmother’s, Redneck, etc. And we were in the Contemporary.  It was really nice being there.
This was right up Nancy’s alley.  Cute, charming, picturesque,  all in all adorable.  I really liked it too.
We had to move the second week because he had a group of graduate students from Coventry England coming and they had reserved the entire motel.
Wade also owns this motel that we are currently in, called Wade’s Motor Inn.  Let’s just say that Wade’s Motor Inn is no Twin Palms that we had just come from.
Since Nan can not get around easily, I had to do the looking!  Let’s just say right now that what is acceptable for the goose is not always acceptable for the gander.  And when it comes to Nan and I are not on the same page, were not even in the same universe on this.
So, I pick out a room with twin beds.  Its definitely 50’s in style.  Even I noticed it was not just made to look like the 50’s, it was actually from the original 50’s.  It looked perfectly okay to me, taking into consideration that I wasn’t buying it as a home or moving in permanently and it was just for a week!  No, it wasn’t nearly as nice as where we had just left, but what the hell!
Now you know when you try to put your dog in the bathtub water and it sticks it’s  arms and paws out stiff and refuses to get in the water?  Well, I get Nan in the wheel chair up to the door of our new room, and her arms are outstretched and her hands are holding tight to the door frame  and I’m thinking she’s trying to steady herself!  Boy, was I wrong.!
Let me tell you how I see this situation.  This is a motel built in the 50’s.  And Wade has kept the original look.  The room has two double beds, and is tan, everything is tan, perfectly boring tan.  It has a desk, no chair, a small table with the microwave on top, a full apartment sized refrigerator (stainless steel).   It does NOT have a clothes closet, it is all tan, and nothing matches and no telephone what so ever.   The bathroom is a bathroom.
 There is a focal point, however. Across the back wall of the main room is a kitchen sink, complete with kitchen cabinets and no granite counters,  more like Formica.  It does have a new flat screen television complete with cable.
The place is clean.  Bathroom,  bedroom, kitchen sink all clean.  The bed linen clean.  Just not stylish.
Since I was not planning to move in permanently, I thought what the hell, it’s only for a week.
And as usual, as soon as we were in –
I began decorating.  First paint the walls a smashing color.  Get a pint of glossy green paint and paint the 2 pieces of furniture.  Move the microwave from the small table to the kitchen counter.  Take one bed out, turn the other one to the wall and make a day bed/couch out of it, with pillows.  New curtains and WA LA a studio apartment.
I have no feeling one way or the other for or against this place.  If I were on vacation somewhere I would have looked for a better more up to date, stylish motel.  But, this is convenient, it’s  close to our home, it’s  close to dialysis,  it’s got restaurants around, and it excepts the dogs.  What else do we need?  Except maybe a pool!
I brought my little DVD player, DVD’s, jewelry makings, my tablet to work on class things and blogs, and my little coffee maker (given to me by my friend, Mike, and travels great).  What the hell …it doesn’t take all that much to make me  a happy camper.  
Just how bad can a place be where you can do laundry, 2 big washes and 2 dryers for $1 each!
Now, let’s see how Nan was handling this situation.  She had her arms out with hands clutching the doorframe, not to steady herself, but because she didn’t want me to bring her inside what she lovingly later begins to refer to it as THE DUMP!.
I came to realize just how she felt only 2 days ago, when her daughter in law and grandchildren called to say they were coming over to bring homemade soup.  Nan got frantic!  “tell them not to come!”  she demanded.    I was confused, SHE ALWAYS WANTS TO SEE THE KIDS!.  Finally, after much probing on my part, she explained why she didn’t want them.  She said she didn’t want them to see her like this!
I thought she had flipped.  It’s only a broken leg I said, how upset do you think the kids are going to be about a broken leg?   “ It’s  not my leg!!  I don’t want them to see me in  place like this! “ I was stunned…are you crazy?  There’s nothing wrong with this place.  We’re not here on vacation, we’re here out of necessity.  “I don’t want them to think I live like this!”   Nancy is a nut job, there is no doubt about it and a snob to boot!  She finally let them come.  Besides I said it’s important for the kids to see how the other half lives…and right now, we were the “other half”…
Tonight she went into a rampage after her brother and sister in law texted that they wanted to come and take us to dinner.  “I don’t want them to see me in a place like this.  I can believe I’ve succumbed to this.  Nothing matches! The curtains don’t match the bedspreads, there’s a kitchen sink in the middle of the room!!” She was at it yet again!
 She goes on… “The furniture is mismatched.  The kitchen sink is in the room!  The night table has a handle missing on the draw! The bathroom has a broken towel rack!  The two pictures are Monet’s, are they kidding!
I can't believe I’m here!   The only thing to make this better is to throw a match in here and start over!  Martha  (Steward) wouldn’t come near here!  I’m in jail here, I have no way to get out!”
By now, I’m laughing so hard I can’t breathe.  This woman has totally lost it, she’s a certified nut job!  Reality…we’re in this room for a lousy week, what’s the difference?
However, the dogs love being here, we’re all in one room.  They  go from bed to bed!  
Now in this place my little JoJo has taken control of security.  She initiates the barking at outside noises, she runs to the door.  She is in control here!
Luna, on the other hand, as Nancy says, couldn’t care less.  At the house, she’s on watch all the time.  She runs downstairs checking, barking, making sure all is okay.  Here she doesn’t even get off the bed.  As Nan says:  Luna is letting Jo take the lead here she thinks if Jo is crazy enough to want to save this dump, she can go to it!
What can I say,  Jo and I just go with the flow.  We make the best out what we have and what’s available.  And if we had to live here, what the hell, a little paint, a little furniture rearranging,  new drapes a touch up here and there, AND WE'VE MADE A HOME!
Nancy on the other hand, is in a “dump” as she so fondly calls it, in jail, stuck in a hole she can’t get out of.  She doesn’t care to stay here even for free, which it is not!  Normally, she’s redecorating everywhere, but the only way she says to redecorate this place is to throw in a  match, collect the insudance and then forget the nightmare!
In all honesty, we usually stay in timeshares when we are on vacation.  Timeshares are like full condo apartments with beautiful décor and all amenities.   This place, I will admit is lacking in some aspects compared to timeshares.  But, what the hell…
                   And surprise, surprise.. this doesn’t have a pool…  Nan said at least if it had a pool she could jump in with her  broken leg and drown.
I have to admit, that this situation does make me laugh out loud when I think about it.  In some ways (not all) Nan is such a snob and I just have laugh when I think how miserable this is making her…
 I just read this to Nan and her only comment was “where’s the match”.  She just said “it’s  amazing we know each other 64 years and we still have absolutely nothing in common!”  boy, is she right!!
Whatever works…. Normandie

Epilogue :  soon after moving in, I mentioned the obvious flaws in the what I thought was the already finished redecoration of the rooms after Wade bought the place, to Sam his brother who runs it.  If this was the redecorating effort, I mentioned, it wasn’t working…
Sam explained that this had been a long term residence for some homeless people who were put here by local agencies.  A few years before Wade purchased the property a woman and her son had been found living in the local wooded area and had been placed in this motel in our room.  They had been here for several years and Wade kept them after he took possession.
They found a job for the son at Public’s and after the years went by were able to save enough money for a down payment on a house of their own.
They had only recently moved out.  That’s why this room hadn’t been redecorated yet.
Since they moved, business has been good and he has been renting the room regularly.   This month things should slow down and they plan to get in and make the changes.
I actually wrote this several weeks ago….since then we have moved back to the original of Wade’s motels and have been in the AFRICAN ROOM for the last 3 weeks.
Nan is now happy, I’m happy, all is right (motel-wise anyway )  with the world!
After 5 weeks, Nan has a walking cast on and we are headed home to a condo with no ceiling in the foyer and part of the garage and no word at all yet from the insurance adjuster who was there about 2 weeks ago..

THIS YEAR, SO FAR, IT’S BEEN ONE CATASTROPHE AFTER ANOTHER,!!
WELL,  WHATEVER WORKS…normandie.
A closing line from Jimmy  (buffett)  “if the hurricane doesn’t kill you…it will surely make you strong..”  is he kidding?
One more addition to the other additions… I am always threatening to kill Nancy one day, AND ALL HER FAMILY, ALL OUR FRIENDS AND EVEN ACQUAINTANCES TELL ME I WON’T SPEND 10 MINUTES IN JAIL, BECAUSE THEY WILL ALL RALLY AROUND ME… AND TELL EVERYONE IT ABSOLUTELY WAS JUSTIFIABLE HOMICIDE!  And boy, would they be right!

Whatever works..this time about..Nancy..and "I would do it myself....BUT!

            Whatever works..this time about..Nancy & I would do it myself BUT! …..

1. Could I have a drink?  I would get it myself, BUT….
2. I would walk the dogs, BUT…
3. I need my clothes.   I would get them myself, BUT..
4.  Could I have a blanket?. I would get it myself,  BUT..
5. Could you crème my back?  I can’t do it myself. .I would, BUT..
6. .  Could you get my red pillow out of the car?.. I would get it myself, …BUT..
7. I have to potty could you get my wheelchair?. .. I would walk there myself,     BUT...
8. Could I have the TV clicker?.. I would get it myself, BUT..
9. I need a blanket!    I would get it myself, BUT...
10. I would feed the dogs myself, BUT..
11. I would help you with the laundry.  BUT...
12. I need my make up!  I would get it myself..BUT..
13. Could you get my comb?   I would get it myself, BUT..
14. I need to get washed, can you get me a wash cloth?  I would get it myself, BUT..
15. Could you scratch my toe?  I would do it myself, BUT...
16. I need some fruit, could you go to the store and get some?  I would go myself, BUT…
17. Whereas my glasses? I would get them myself. BUT…

this is a photo of nan’s leg and the reason for “she would do it BUT….

                 Then she has enough nerve to say…she would do it for ME!
                                         WHO IS SHE TRYING TO KID?

AND the topper..be careful.. SHE SAYS..I’m in the wheelchair..

This coming from the same woman who while pushing ME in a wheelchair in Disney world,  let the chair go down a slope and I went crashing into a curb!! This incident happened several years ago and I was not hurt.

WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PUCTURE?!!!

                                 Or better yet…what’s wrong with me?
Whateverworks.. normandie

Whateverworks. ..this time about..Normandie & " just live with it"!

Whatever Works ... This time about Normandie and “JUST LIVE WITH IT”

It has recently occurred to me that more and more I have been hearing from doctors and friends alike, “JUST LIVE WITH IT.”  That may be fine and dandy and easy for them to say, but I’m the one who is actually doing the living with it!
I have been thinking back, and I realized that I started to hear those words rather frequently when I was about 69.  
When I was 68 or 69, I began having trouble with my legs.  I felt a little numbness in my both my thighs when I stood or walked too much.  Then as time went by, it got worse and happened more often.  Numbness, then pain.  Real, honest-to-goodness pain. 
I went to Dr. Flaherty and he took x-rays.  Turns out I have two discs in my spine that have dissolved, or compressed or something.  Pressure on the area causes the numbness, then the pain.  Medical opinion on how to stop it:  simple, sit down until it goes away.   Reason:  an operation on my spine would be too dangerous.  Or, in other words --- just live with it!
Sometime later, I had a problem with numbness in my right hand once in a while.  More x-rays.  Now I learned a disc is missing in my neck causing occasional numbness.  Medical decision:  absolutely no operation on my neck, unless absolutely necessary.  And this was not absolutely necessary.  Results:  deal with occasional numbness.  In other words, just live with it!
After turning 70, I noticed a large bulge in my stomach, so back to the doctor.  Turns out it’s a hernia.  Protruding, yes.  Medical problem, no.
In other words, unless it ruptures (here we go again), just live with it!
The numbness in my legs started to get more frequent.  No change in medical diagnosis.  You got it, just….
The numbness in my fingers moved up to my arms, too. Tough!  Just live w…..
I turned 71 and developed heart problems.  No one suggested I live with it – they fixed it by putting in a stent.  But, while in the hospital, I had a serious dizzy spell!  The doctor asked lots of questions.  Diagnosis:  old age vertigo.  Anyway, can it be fixed — no.  You got it, one more time, “just…l…w…i..!”
This month, my crown fell out of the front of my mouth:  a gaping hole where my front tooth should be.  Diagnosis:  can’t have it fixed until September.  Why?  Because I’m on Plavix (blood thinner) until then because of the stent!  Results:  at this point I don’t even have to say it, do I?
I also have angina off and on.  Is it a problem all the time?  No.  Result:  why shouldn’t you hear it as much as I do, “JUST LIVE WITH IT!”
For 30 years, I have had constant diarrhea.  Cause?  Who really knows!  All medical people think it’s because ALL the meds I take say “possible diarrhea” as a side effect. Result:  too bad, “live with it” and run to the bathroom whenever necessary, and always carry an extra pair of underwear!  
And, how could I forget the dreaded restless leg syndrome!  For about two to three months, I had constant restless leg syndrome.  Every night I walked and walked the floor.  It felt like worms were crawling up and down the veins in my legs.  They just wouldn’t stop the movement and I couldn’t do anything except walk.  
Dr. Flaherty said I could take yet another pill that might relieve it, or, what can I say --- just live with it, it might stop at some point.
About two weeks ago, I started to feel a little “tickle” feeling on the back of my neck around the area where the label on your shirt would be.  It’s a small tickle feeling in a small area.  Annoying, yes, a very, very annoying feeling –yes!.  I keep asking Nan if something is walking on me.  There is nothing there.  Am I going to the doctor?  NO! Am I going to ask anyone to see if something is there again?--  NO!  --- I am, however, going to take it on my own to just “live with it!!

So, let’s re-cap:  
1. Numbness in both thighs:  live with it!
2. Numbness in arm and fingers:  live with it!
3. Protruding stomach:  live with it!
4. Hernias in stomach:  live with them!
5. Angina, too bad:  live with it!
6. Toothless, big deal: live with it!
7. 30 years of constant diarrhea, that’s too bad.  Diarrhea, find a bathroom:  live with it.
8. Restless leg syndrome, I chose “just to live with it” since I refused to add yet another pill that might or might not work to the 12 I was already taking.
9. Tickle in my neck:  that’s life -- live with it!

I have come to the conclusion that I have more things that I have to “JUST LIVE WITH” than I have actual medical problems!

I have diabetes, heart trouble, and high blood pressure, all of which are being taken care of with meds.

But when you come right down to it, it’s all things that I

     “JUST HAVE TO LIVE WITH!!”

I hope I live long enough to just do that!!!
What the hell … whatever works … Normandie

whatever works .... this time about 'i wish i knew what the hell was going on here'.

whatever works heaven knows what this will be about..

i can't seem to find the new blog site i created:  istillcantthinkofonemorething.blogspot.com, for some reason it to has disappeared from the dashboard that i write on and post from.  i now have about 8 blogs, non of which i can get into.  i think this will be posted under an old blog spot site i had some time go  named:  almost10000words.blogspot.com, but this is only conjecture, who know where it will show up, or if it will show up at all anywhere, or at least anywhere i will be able to find, or you will be able to find.  that is if you're even interested in finding it.  I'm just going to publish this little nothing and see where it shows up.

I'm also going to try and put photos on it, which is something i could never figure out when i was i thought moving along nicely on wordpresss.  as most of you know i can not in anyway find the wordpress dashboard so that i could continue to post there.  i also now have about 7 e-mail addresses and when i try to get into wordpress it says i need a password which i don't remember and in order to get a new password you have to put in an active e-mail address.  i have tried putting in every one of the e-mail address i have and a 'link' was not sent to any of them.  soooo, where is the damn thing going.  now wordpress does have a way to help you find your missing blog dashboard.  1st you have had to purchase an upgrade and know when you did that  2nd you have to be able to prove it's your blog by telling them what you've written in draft form before you published and the 3rd i don't remember.  well, i never upgraded so i don't have a payment receipt, i never write in draft form on the dashboard site, i always write in 'word' then just cut and past to the dashboard and the third whatever it was i didn't do either.  so they were not able to help me get back to the dashboard that i have been faithfully posting to for a couple of years now.  so, the last post i was able to do on wordpress just sits there in cyber space that anyone can still read if they put icantthinkofonemorething.wordpress.com, but i can not change and with no way at all to tell people what's happened and the new blog spot I'm at.  which by the way, i also can not find.  and so, here we are full circle, back where we started.

i don't know if any of you will be able to find this, or even if i will be able to find this, or even if you care to find this, but here we go.

attached, and i use the word loosely, because i have no idea if they will actually show up or not, are of our recent trip to Italy.  as you may or may not be able to see, as the case may be, all photos of buildings,  doors, door knockers, and various individual features on the buildings.  as you can see i do not take photos of people, why i don't know, but i do know i like buildings.  i took 4,000 photos while in Europe and on the ship all of items.  

p.s.  you can tell this hasn't gone thru Angela, because i don't like to use capital letters since they slow me down and only change them when the spell check tells me to.  

well, here's another interesting little tidbit.  when you click on add a photo your options are:  from Picasa, from dropbox, from this blog, from your phone, from your webcam.  well i have thousands of photos on Picasa, of which 6 showed up (and that was all i could find)  these are 3 of them, i do, i think have a similar amount on that dropbox (whatever that it-only opened it because Laurie told me to so she could look at something i wanted to send and was having trouble with, the only trouble now is i do not understand 'dropbox' at all and can not figure out what it's purpose is or what it is supposed to be used for.  i have a similar understand of 'facebook')  as far as URL I have no idea what they want me to put in there, i don't know what webcam is or where to find it even if i had it, and obviously I'm trying to put photos on here so there aren't any already.  that option seemed totally ridiculous to me, and finally i do have photos on my phone, but nothing i wanted to share here.  I'm use to getting all my photos from 'word' but that was NOT an option.  why not, i have no idea since i believe that's where people with 'windows' usually keep their pictures, do you?

just for the hell of it, the pictures from top to bottom are:  the serenity deck notice on the ship,
the outside of shops in Bermuda (maybe) and the young girl who was supposed to help with the serving in the dining room on the ship.  she did, as seen here, spend most of her time behind the barrier starring out into the dining room, but doing nothing, while the head waiter ran around doing everything.  she was a sweet, lovely little girl but didn't seem to be any help at all.  in spite of what this seems, i do actually have some perfectly wonderful photos off all areas of Europe we were in.

well, this it  - what you see is what you get.

whatever works --  normandie

WHATEVER WORKS..  you're not  going to believe this one....

this is probably my 10th Blog site.  yes, i did write TENTH.  my last major blog site was WORDPRESS. i was with wordpress for more than a year, and i posted over 15 blogs.  then one day i changed my e-mail address and have not been able to get into that blog dashboard since.  no matter what i tried - nothing worked and I've continued to try even today!  i had several sites on wordpress,  helloworldnormandiehere, normandieswanderingtoes, normandiesalmost5,432photosandmore.  i can get into the dashboards of all these blogs but not the main one i posted to and that is  icantthinkofonemorething.wordpress.com.  oh, you can still put it up but you and obviously i can't get into the dashboard to post a new blog.  with that horror in mind i moved back to google's blogger.  i had opened a blog site there a few years ago under the URL almost10000words.blog spot.com.  i only posted a few times on that site.  i opened the site as an additional avenue to show my stuff.  soon i just forgot about it, but it remained functional.  after weeks of trying to get back into icantthink..i semi-gave up and decided to go back to google.  another reason for going back to google rather than just opening another wordpress blog is you can't get any help from the wordpress people other than that from the forums consisting of other bloggers.  so back to google.  i tried to open a new blog site and wanted to call it  icantthinkofonemorething, but even though it was a totally different company it wouldn't accept it.  so i changed it to   istillcantthinkofonemorething and that went through.  i completed all the paperwork and thought i had it made.  i was able to post on that new site. i did - the post was about our trip to Italy and the vegetable man.  after a few weeks i was ready to post a new blog.  lo' and behold, i couldn't get into the dashboard in order to post a new blog.  it has now been about 5 weeks that i have been trying and without any luck.  every time i try and no matter what i try i only get the old dashboard of almost 10,000 words. as i see it, i have two choices at this point:  1.  i can give up the whole blogging idea or 2:  I  can give up the search for the istillcant....dashboard and just go back to almost 10,000 and post there.  naturally, it would not surprise me at all is i did post and then the next time i was ready to post again i won't be able to find this dashboard either.  if that does happen, i am done blogging.

so, I'm trying one more time.  and following is the latest attempt to post something new. 

 WHATEVER WORKS… this time about hospital food…?

Recently our trip to Italy included, naturally, a lot of food.  Most of it was worth writing about and definitely worth your taking time to read about.  Let’s start by saying the euro exchange was not in our favor when we went to Europe.  Therefore, almost every single thing in Italy is expensive.  

Let’s begin with Nancy’s hospital stay.  It lasted 12 days.  This is practically unheard of in Italy.  By the way, Italy is the second healthiest country in the world.  There are many reasons for this that I may or may not go into later.  We’ll see.  Anyway, since Italy has socialized medicine, the average stay is 3 days.  You arrive, they cure you, and you go home.  That’s the whole story:  in, fixed, out, end of story.  More about people’s reactions to Nancy’s long stay in yet another blog.  Anyway, Nan’s in the hospital.  The hospital is new, clean, and well-staffed.  Each room has 4 beds, and therefore has 4 patients.  They shared a bathroom and shower with an adjoining room and four other women.  But, back to the food.  A little comparison; we live in Titusville and our local hospital is Parrish Medical Center (PMC).  At PMC you get a menu when you check in.  When you’re hungry, you take your menu any time between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and you place your order.  The kitchen checks your order against your doctor’s nutrition orders and if no changes need to be made, within a half hour you receive your food.  You can order breakfast, lunch and dinner this way.  Now, Nan is in an Italian hospital and things are done a little differently there.  Breakfast comes at the same time each day.  If you’re there, fine.  If for some reason you’re not – well that’s just tough.  If it’s still there when you return, you could eat it cold.   Breakfast consists of a large bowl of coffee-milk and one biscotti.  Lunch and dinner are served at the same time each day; again, if you’re there great, if not - well tough.  Lunch consisted of a large portion of spinach.  Yes, spinach:  not creamed, not seasoned, not with lemon, not with anything – just spinach as it comes naked from the boiling pot.  Included is a very, and I mean very, small piece of mystery meat and two extremely thin (wrapped) bread sticks.  Dinner is virtually the same.  The main dish is spinach.  Spinach is served each and every lunch and dinner for days until they run out of it.  They don’t seem to ever run out of it.  Nancy, thank heavens, is not a picky eater and will eat almost anything.  There were NO evening snacks of any kind.  Once dinner was gone, eating was all over for that day.  If you hid a bread stick or two, you could have an evening snack.

So, Nan was in the hospital for an extremely bad asthma/bronchitis bout.  In order to save her from possible death from another bad asthma attack, they had to give her steroids.  The steroids would affect her kidney disease and possibly cause kidney failure.  They had to be very careful.  They gave her steroids for as only as long as they felt it was safe.  When you are given steroids, they do clear up your asthma but steroids do affect your diabetes.  They cause your blood sugar to go sky high, and I mean sky high.  Her blood sugar was in the upper 600 range. This is very dangerous.  So, now they had taken care of the asthma/bronchitis and in doing so caused a more serious problem, the sky-high blood sugar.  Nancy had seven doctors, - more on that in another blog.  They tried everything, day after day.  No luck, they couldn’t get it down at all.  This was the reason she was in the hospital so long.  Finally, out of desperation, they tried one last thing.

One morning, seven or so days into her stay, breakfast was served.  The lady across from her received a tray, likewise the woman next to her, as well as the women across from Nan.  Nan watched and waited. They trays were served; the kitchen worker left.  Nan had no breakfast.  The nurse arrived, patted Nan’s arm and in her broken English said something about her not getting breakfast, but would get lunch.  Okay, that was okay.  She could live without breakfast.  Lunch arrived, the woman across got her tray, the woman next to her got her tray, and the woman on the other side got her tray.  Nancy did not get a tray.  The same nurse arrived, patted her arm and again said, “Dinner.”  Two meals down, and no food in site.  Dinner arrived.  Do I need to go on?  The lady across from her and the ones on either side of her all got trays, Nancy still did not.  Another nurse arrived, came to Nan and patted her and said, “BREAKFAST.”   Do we see a pattern forming here?  Now, let’s remember this is an Italian hospital and, believe it or not, they speak Italian!  So we had a little language problem along with everything else. Finally the doctor arrived with an interpreter.  Seems they had tried everything they could collectively think of to get her sugar down, and nothing worked, so they decided the only thing left to try was the NO FOOD diet.  How long this was going to last they didn’t know.  Probably a few days.

Three days went by, everyone in the room ate, and Nancy did not.  A nurse did arrive to pat her arm, three times a day.  Now, Nan can be sneaky.  She had been hoarding her bread sticks and had them hidden in her night table drawer.  She had been eating one or two in the evening when snacks weren’t available.  So when the food service stopped she still had 2 or 3 breadsticks tucked away.  Who knew there was a Breadstick Gestapo in this hospital?  She charged into the room, went directly to Nancy’s bed, looked right in her draw, grabbed the contraband breadsticks and shook her arm and hand that was holding the breadsticks at Nancy as she said something menacing in Italian to Nan all the way out the door.  Goodbye any sustenance.

I might add that even after three days of starvation – this to did not work.  They gave up and fed her.

Now along with the lone vegetable of the week for lunch and dinner, they served her a kind of what we thought might be ‘soup’.  We weren’t quite sure, because it was a dirty brown liquid.  Nothing in it – just dirty brown water.  She drank it nevertheless!  

One day after several days of this mystery liquid, I came in and she was sooo animated, so excited, that I thought she had been told she was going home.  But no, she informed me in a most excited way that she had “A NOODLE IN HER SOUP!”  I couldn’t speak; I thought she was having a psychotic episode.  “WHAT?” I asked.  Again, as excited as can be, she once again explained, “THERE WAS A NOODLE IN MY SOUP TODAY!!”  “A noodle?” I asked.  “Yes, yes,” she said, “a noodle.”  There was only one noodle, but it was there.  I cut it up into very small pieces and ate it slowly.”  I just looked at her and decided to go out and find the doctor and have him commit her to the psychiatric area of the hospital.  I was only hoping there was a psychiatric area in this hospital.  To this day, I can’t help but still laugh hysterically when in my mind I recall the picture of how excited she was over this noodle.  And people think that I’m the nut!  

Now, let me tell you about my experiences in that same hospital.  I would go and visit around lunchtime or a little later.  Downstairs on the first floor was a deli.  It served patients, medical personnel, visitors, everyone.  I mentioned that everyone spoke Italian, did I not?  Okay, I had no idea how this ordering to get food worked.  So I just plowed in.   I went to the deli case to see what was available.  There were many types of sandwiches and wraps.  Upon closer look, I saw that each and every sandwich contained some kind of ham.  I DO NOT EAT HAM.  There was ham in heroes, in wraps, in buns, in white bread.  Ham, ham, ham as far as the eye could see – HAM!  I looked and looked and finally saw something in the back that looked a little red; I thought it was salami.  That’s what I ordered.  After taking several minutes trying to figure out how to pay for this thing, I finally got it straight and got my sandwich.  

Not knowing any Italian words for mayo, mustard or any such thing, I took the sandwich, found a seat and took off the top piece of bread only to find that it was not salami – it was, in fact, HAM, and a small piece of red pepper.   I paid 7 euro for this thing, which was about $9.73 U.S!  Upon further examination, this sandwich that cost almost $10 consisted of:  two pieces of white bread, one thin slice of some sort of white cheese, and two slices of the dreaded HAM.  Now these two slices of ham were sliced sooooo thin that together, together, you could read the New York Times through them.  The whole sandwich wasn’t even one inch thick and cost me ten bucks.  I ate it, I didn’t like it, I didn’t enjoy it, and it cost me $10, but I did eat it.  And I ate a similar sandwich every single day that Nan remained in the hospital.  Finally two days before she was discharged, I figured out how to get some mayo.  

Should a similar occasion come to pass, please, remind me to never eat at that deli again!!