Latest Date

Thought you all might want to hear about my latest date. Yep, it's been about 4 years since I took an active role in the dating scene. This one was all accidental - I did not actively search for a man this time - he found me. We shall call him George (fake name to protect the guilty).

As you should know (if you have read my blog) that I love craigslist. I usually go on there every day to search the pets, men, and furniture. Don't even ask me why - I don't need another pet, I don't "need" a man, and I don't have money for furniture. I keep hoping my son will take pity of me and buy me some of the furniture that I send him pictures of off craigslist - but no such luck so far. Anyways, I digress (which I am good at), and one day I thought I would put an ad on craigslist asking about Baker Junior High. Way back in '66, '67, '68, I lived in Austin and I went to Baker Junior High. I had heard that they had torn it down, so I was curious about it. So, in the ad, I asked about it. I got several responses - some saying it had been torn down, some saying it hadn't (so don't ask me). Well, one of the responses was from George.

George wanted to know if I had a boyfriend. I told him I didn't. He wrote back and said "why don't you have a boyfriend, or are you too mean?" and I replied with "well, didn't you hit the nail on the head - yes, I am too mean OR it could be one of these reasons....get my feelings hurt too easily, too fat, give too much in a relationship and expect the same thing back....talk too much...maybe I am too bitter....being a scorpio scares some...being a red-headed scorpio scares even more...maybe I am ugly.

There !! I have given him enough to digest and ponder and then decide if he were man enough...well, I guess he decided he was man enough, so he kept writing. He said he just loved redheads. Did he not read any of the other scarey stuff or did his male-brain just zoom in to the red hair??

Don't you think an intelligent man would have the sense to think, "hmmm, ok, she has said she might be mean, she gets her feelings hurt easily, she is overweight, she talks alot, and she might even be ugly." So, he would then consider to walk gently around the trepid waters....no, not this one. I guess he wanted control over me - wanted to make me feel bad - or whatever - because he said the omnious words - the final words any man mentions to me....."Diane, being overweight is dangerous to your health."

He claimed he said them because he was concerned. Now let's reason this out, shall we?? I am 53 years old, educated and not a complete idiot - do men think that I am not aware of my weight?? Do they think it just sneaks up on me and attacks me when I am not looking? Do they think I carry it around because I am bored? So why do they think it's up to them to tell me I am overweight???? The only people I halfway listen to about my weight are people with the letter MD behind their name and the only reason I halfway listen to them is because I am writing them a check to tell me something.

Ok, my point is - how come I am willing to accept men with their faults and flaws but yet, they are willing to point mine out??? Again I say, I go for what is on the inside and not on the outside. How come men can't do that?? The irony of the whole situation is - if I concentrated on my weight and my outer looks, then I wouldn't be caught dead with most of the men I have dated !! Ironical isn't it?

Ok, I must tell you the rest - George said I need professional help and it's not too late to get it - (but he didn't offer to pay for it). So, now I am taking donations for my professional help. Any amount will be appreciated by the next man I date.

But, like I told my daughter - I think the next man I date is going to be a mute - that way he can't say anything about my weight. She said he would just write it down. I told her that at least I would have proof that they say it. So, now I am looking for a mute that doesn't know sign language nor knows how to write - if you know of one, please let me know. And, please do not forget the donations towards my professional help.

Man in a hurry

It was a busy morning, about 8:30 , when an elderly gentleman in his 80's, arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00 am.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry. The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife.

I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while and that she was a victim of Alzheimer's Disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?"He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."

I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm, and thought, "That is the kind of love I want in my life."True love is neither physical, nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be."

My favorite daughter

I have a favorite daughter - Lisa. (for those of you who are offended by favoritism - Lisa is my ONLY daughter).

I know how people say that their child was a "good child"....well, Lisa actually fit that role. I probably only had to whip her twice in her whole life (yes, I believe in spanking children). Her brother is a whole different story. I will have to write about him later. Back to Lisa - she is always considerate and sweet. She does exceptionally well in her present job, hospital admissions, because she is so nice to people. I remember when she was younger, she would wake up and quietly close my bedroom door and turn on the Saturday cartoons at a low volume. (Her brother would turn it up at full volume and leave my bedroom door open - so each Saturday, I hoped she would wake up first) :)

I couldn't ask for a better daughter. She has given me two beautiful, wonderful and cute grandsons (not prejudice here). She is lucky to have a wonderful mate - Mike. And, he is lucky to have her.

She is very creative. When she was 9 years old, she made a hand-made quilt. I have several of her beautiful cross-stitch pieces in my home. No, she did not get her creativeness from me - it skipped a generation - she got it from my mother. They are now busy and interested in scrapbooking.

She makes beautiful jewelry. She now has her own website and I would love for you to visit it. It is ldfdesign.etsy.com. I am sure if you have some suggestions for her, she would listen. If you do buy something from her, tell her that her mother sent you. :)

Truth about clay

A man was exploring caves by the seashore. In one of the caves, he found a canvas bag with a bunch of hardened clay balls. It was like someone had rolled clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake.

They didn't look like much, but they intrigued the man, so he took the bag out of the cave with him. As he strolled along the beach, he would throw the clay balls one at a time into the ocean as far as he could.

He thought little about it, until he dropped one of the clay balls and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!

Excited, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so clay calls he had left. Then it struck him.

He had been on the beach a long time. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 of the clay balls with their hidden treasure into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!

It's like that with people. We look at someone, maybe even ourselves, and we see the external clay vessel. It doesn't look like much from the outside. It isn't always beautiful or sparkling, so we discount it.

We see that person as less important than someone more beautiful or stylish or well known or wealthy. But, we have not taken the time to find the treasure hidden inside that person.

There is a treasure in each one of us. If we take the time to get to know that person, and if we ask God to show that person the way He sees them, then the clay begins to peel away and the brilliant gem begins to shine forth.

May we not come to the end of our lives and find out that we have thrown away a fortune in friendships because the gems were hidden in bits of clay. May we see the people in our world as God sees them.

Live your life so that those who know you but don't know God will come to know God because they know you.

My opinon

Ok, everyone has an opinion. I am fixing to give mine on three subjects. These are all based on my experiences (and pain) and if I can help just one person out there, then maybe it wasn't all in vain.

In my opinion, please do not EVER use Dr. Elliott Clemence in San Antonio, TX as your orthopedic surgeon. In May, 2005 I started just falling down. This is not fun. Just imagine walking somewhere and you never know if you are going to make it to your desitination or, in one instant, be on the floor. Someone referred me to Dr. Clemence. He was in Jourdanton at that time. I have sinced learned that he was once in Beeville (no longer there), Kingsville (no longer there), Alice (no longer there) and Jourdanton (no longer there). This should say something. So, anyways, I went to Dr. Clemence thinking I would get a cortisone shot. Nope. He informed me that I would have surgery in July. So, on July 27, 2005, my life was changed. I had a total right knee replacement. Aspirated. Spent 12 days in ICU. Came home with two stage three bedsores (does this mean that Southwest General Hospital really took care of me?!?!). Now on the other side - they assigned Dr. Riveria, a pulmonary dr, to me and he was fantastic !! He was caring and an excellent doctor. Dr. Clemence would come to the door of the hospital room and not even enter - it was like "eww, you have cooties and I am not even going to get close to you.". Not Dr. Riveria, he would come in and hold my hand and ask how I was doing. Once home, I started getting other symptoms - Dr. Clemence would just ignore those and say "that has nothing to do with your knee". After going to another doctor, I was diagnosed with spinal stenosis. If Clemence had listened to me and cared for me, he might have diagnosed this earlier. In one short year, another orthopedic doctor has informed me that I need another knee replacement - on the same knee. I have heard of this happening to two other women that had Dr. Clemence. So, in my opinion, please do not ever use Dr. Elliot Clemence.

In my opinion, please do not use AFLAC. AFLAC came to my place of employment and when I told them my story of my knee surgery and ICU, the man said that I would have gotten at least $35,000 from AFLAC if I had signed up with them. Well, being the dummy that I am, and gullible, I fell for it and signed up immediately. With my knee and spinal stenosis problems, I missed a total of 52 days and was docked 1/10th of my yearly salary (yep, a lot of money). Did AFLAC help me? NO. You have to fill out tons of paperwork and then they come up with every excuse under the sun why you shouldn't get any money. A doctor gave me a prescription to go home and keep my feet up for 10 days. I filled out the paperwork and turned it in to AFLAC. I waited from September to March to get that $200. And this was after speaking to man from AFLAC and turning in the paperwork twice.

In my opinion, do not ever drive a KIA. This was about 8 years ago, I bought my son a brand new KIA. Within 6 weeks, it had already broken down three times. Now I am not saying that my son was the best driver but these were major breakdowns. Maybe they have improved KIA's since then, but I wouldn't drive one if someone gave me one.

Remember, these are just my opinions (and I am sticking to them!!) :) Everyone has stories about something and that is one great thing about blogs - you get to share them with anyone willing to sit down and read. Besides, like I tell people, that is why I usually get away with saying anything I want because no one listens to me. So, I get away with writing anything I want because no one reads my blog. :) But, if I have helped one person, then GREAT !!

My thoughts

I have been thinking....how come we can vote for a ban on public smoking and not even consider voting on a ban for public alcohol (intoxication)? Does the government get more money from the beer and wine companies than they do from the cigarette companies? I have never heard of anyone smoking a 6 pack of cigarettes, getting into a car, and killing a family. When a person smokes, they are just killing themselves - when a person drinks and gets behind a wheel, they could kill a whole family. So, why don't we pass a ban on public drinking???? If people can't smoke in a restaurant, then people shouldn't be able to drink alcohol in there either - it's only fair!! If smokers have to stay at home to enjoy some pleasure, then alcohol drinkers should have to stay at home too!!

I decided to do some research on this topic. 250,000 people have died in alcohol related deaths in the past ten years. (from alcoholism.about.com) From www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/3261/7398/1057 the conclusions were: "The results do not support a casual relation between environmental tobacco smoke and tobacco related mortality, although they do not rule out a small effect. The association between exposure to environmental tobacco smoke and coronary heart disease and lung cancer may be considerably weaker than generally believed."

If anyone out there has some data that shows how many people have died from second hand smoke, please let me know. But, I am willing to bet you that more people die from alcohol related accidents than from second hand smoke.

I guess it just boils down to life is not fair. Another "fair" topic should be urine tests. How come the people going to work every day have to sometimes take an urine test in order to earn the paycheck that the government takes money out to give to people who get to stay at home? If the workers should have to take an urine test, then the people getting the free money should have to take one too in order to get that free money !!

The Old Fisherman

Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore . We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to out-patients at the Clinic. One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my eight-year-old," I thought as I stared at thestooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw. Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatmentthis morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'till morning."He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success; no one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face. I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments..."For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning." I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us. "No thank you. I have plenty" And he held up a brown paper bag. When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn't take a long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body. He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury. He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was prefaced with thanks to God for a blessing. He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going.At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded, and the little man was out on the porch. He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, Could I please comeback and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won't put youout a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair." He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to mind." I told him he was welcome to come again. And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largestoysters I had ever seen. He said he had shucked them t hat morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4 a.m. and wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never atime that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.Other times we received packages in the mail, always by specialdelivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious. When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!"Maybe we did lose roomers once or twi ce But, oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illness would have been easier to bear. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God.Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse. As she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms. But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself,"If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!"My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she explained, "and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden."She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I w asimagining just such a scene in heaven. There's an especially beautiful one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body."All this happened long ago -- and now, in God's garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand.The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at theoutward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."