This and That on Monday

I haven't figured out why Monday is such a drag for me. Usually, I have no obligations or appointments because I don't schedule anything on Monday. Retirement means I don't have to deal with a job. Nothing going on.

Maybe it's the sixty-plus years of facing work and school. I just don't know.

However, sometimes we don't have control over life. Today we're up bright and early waiting for the maintenance guys to arrive. They'll be fixing our bathroom floor. The tiles are old and have started to come up. A couple broke. We're not sure exactly what they're going to do...but it will mean using our 'other' bathroom (toilet and sink crammed in a tiny closet) until they're done.

Thank goodness we have another bathroom.

Sometimes we forget to be grateful for the small stuff. My usual practice when I get up is to check the weather, the news and my e-mail. The first thing I saw this morning was a piece about folks fighting a wildfire in Oklahoma. One person has already died.

Last week a lot of folks died or were injured or lost everything they owned due to tornadoes. Others out in California lost their homes. There's nothing left...not even a bathroom.

I confess I'm cranky in the morning when I face dealing with finger pokes and belly pokes before my first cup of coffee. But I never forget to be grateful for those teeny needles and the pen technology so I don't have to deal with syringes and long needles. I'm blessed I have an insurance plan that pays for them.

Though my family is scattered all over the country, I'm blessed that we all get along and keep in touch. Not all people are so blessed. My brother, who is sixty, is going to take my mom--eighty-five--to the mother-son banquet at church this week. I'm so happy he lives close to my parents.

It's easy to be grumpy when our cozy little world is disturbed, but most of us have shelter, food, clothing and security. Most of us have reasonably good health and family or good friends around us.

Monday. A day to be grateful for all I have. Sun is shining. A hot cup of coffee. And the hunk makes a wonderful breakfast. The rest of life? Bring it on...

Life

Risk. It's part of life. If you take no risks, then you aren't really living. Oh, I believe you should do what you can to minimize the risks, but once you do, then life is for doing.

The fear of failure is the main thing holding most people back from living life. How many of us say "one day I'll do such and such", but one day never comes?

How many of us are holding back until we think we're "ready". Will we ever be ready? Really?

anny

Babesiosis

Life is one continual series of crises or so it seems some days. I had never heard of babesiosis. Then someone dear to me (we'll call her Blondie) received a letter from a lab where she had some blood work done. She tested positive for this possibly degenerative disease and they were recommending that she talk to her physician or the hospital ER as soon as possible.

Where do you go when you want to know about a disease? The internet, of course. Seems that this is a malarial-like parasite contracted from the same tick that carries Lyme disease. Charming. According to one internet sight, there is a very high incidence of this in Massachusetts, Connecticutt, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Wonder if anyone else is like me and never heard of it?

Treatment requires not one, but two antibiotics... very specific antibiotics. And the thing that absolutely gets me is that Blondie looked that up on the internet, knew which antibiotics she needed, and when she called her doctor, she's the one who had to tell the DOCTOR what she needed. Hello? The doctor was going to prescribe something else entirely.

I truly wonder where medical care in this country is headed. When Blondie told the doctor about the information on the web site, the doctor admitted that she had NEVER treated a patient for this and had no idea what she should do. She would have to "read up" on it. Then she told Blondie to go to the ER for assistance. On a Saturday night. At an inner city hospital. I still haven't heard from her.

In the meantime, if you live in Lyme disease country, I recommend that you make yourself familiar with the symptoms. It strongly mimics the flu. If untreated, it can lead to all sorts of nasty complications--even death. Yet another thing to worry about.

Every time we turn around it seems like there's a new threat to our health. I tell you, I have no idea what to eat, drink, how much to rest and sleep, where to walk, when to exercise... I've come to the conclusion that something will eventually kill me. So perhaps I should just pick the way I want to go, eh?

It kinda reminds me of that cartoon about sliding into the casket sideways, used up, and happy. Live life. Perhaps that's the secret--just live life, have a bucket list and go out there like tomorrow's the last day. I bet a lot of people would turn off the TVs if tomorrow was the last day.

Well, I've been as philosophical as I get at midnight. Stop by Kelly's blog for her Sunday quote at www.kkirch.blogspot.com and then pop over to Amarinda's place for her take on life at www.amarindajones.blogspot.com Blessings on your day!

Life

Have you ever started a project only to find that it was a mistake? Something you should have taken more time to consider? More than you could handle? I'm in the middle of a couple of projects like that.

I grew up in the era when the expectation was that you finished whatever you began, whether it was the dishes or a marriage. Walking away wasn't ever an option. You just kept at it until the job was done. So I'm having a hard time admitting that I might have bitten off more than I can chew--or swallow. What to do? I really don't like to leave things unfinished.

On the other hand...

I worked for many years in a job where the expectations were impossible. And when I left that job, I determined that I would never go back to that stressful lifestyle. So it's sheer stupidity if I do it to myself. I suspect that I will have to make a couple of changes and set aside a plan or two or three. I wish that didn't make me feel like I'd failed. After all, these are MY expectations and I can choose to change them, much like I chose to have New Years goals instead of resolutions. Life is basically how we look at it.

Possibly the most difficult part of restructuring is deciding what to keep and what to toss. I'm a keeper of everything. "Someday I might need it..." Well, not today. It's about clearing the decks for those things I truly want/need to do. The rest must go. Time is passing and once gone I can never get it back.

Priorities are a bitch to set, aren't they? Oh, some are simple. Family, spouse, income, outgo, those things are sort of set in stone, right? But after that, things are a tad foggier. Doing the dishes every day? Vacuuming every day? Getting up every day? Decisions, decision. What to do? Tea or coffee? Bikinis or grannies? Get dressed and stay in the jammies?

Exciting and difficult to keep re-inventing myself after forty, fifty,... You would think that I would eventually settle down. Eventually pick something to be. I'm nearly grown up, after all. Shouldn't I know what I want to be when I grow up? Apparently not.

But I'm working on it.

Anny

I have a scavenger hunt all month long on my webpage at http://www.annycook.com/ so check out the contest box for rules and clues.

What could you spend an eternity doing? What is your passion? Your hunger? Your deepest desire? Each day beginning February 5 and running through February 14 one of the ten authors will complete the line, "My darling I could spend eternity…" on either their blog or website. Collect all ten answers and e-mail them to anny@annycook.com with Eternally Yours in the subject line to win some hot, romantic books. There will be three lucky Valentine winners.

The prizes –1st prize--5 books

2nd prize--3 books

3rd prize--2 books
Entries must be in by February 16 at midnight EST. All books and prize winners will be drawn randomly.

Sandra Cox Silverhills
Mona Risk To Love a Hero
Brynn Paulin Tribute For the Goddess
Bronwyn Green Mystic Circle
Cindy Spencer Pape Stone and Earth
N.J. Walters Seduction of Shamus O’Rourke
Elyssa Edwards Mating Stone
Amarinda Jones Shades of Gray
Kelly Kirch Time for Love

Anny Cook Honeysuckle

Check out Amarinda's blog where she's being contentious all week at http://www.amarindajones.blogspot.com/ and then pop over to Kelly's blog where she's reciting poetry at http://www.kkirch.blogspot.com/ Blessings on your day!