THE MOST JOYOUS & DANGEROUS ROOM

I've read that the most hazardous room in your house is the bathroom. For me, it has to be the kitchen, definitely and without a doubt!

I am blessed with a kitchen and formal dining room that each have beautiful nature views; but stuff happens.

Twice, I've had fires on my stove top that sent me into a panic!

The first time, I was frying coconut shrimp. Oil splattered and flames shot up! Luckily, I managed to suffocate it. Perhaps I'd better stick with TV dinners, I figured.  Afterward, I found coconut shrimp at the supermarket that could be baked instead.

The second incident happened recently. I fixed a burner that had been long dead and got it working again. Well, as I was setting my table I heard an explosion! I ran into the kitchen and saw my tea kettle engulfed in flames! Fortunately again, I was able to put it out.

One incident involved blood.

The summer before last, I was reaching for a glass in the back of my cabinet. Two in the front started tumbling toward me. Instantly, I grabbed them smashing them together, breaking both. A piece of glass went into the upper side of my wrist below the mound of Venus (I've studied palm reading.) Blood gushed profusely down my arm. I was unable to stop the bleeding.

I thought about calling 911, then I remembered that I don't have Insurance. I raced upstairs and got scotch tape, that stopped the bleeding! Had it not, my next step would have been duct tape.

Recently, I have discovered and fallen in love with spaghetti squash. For me to love ANY vegetable is a rarity indeed! So I eagerly bought one at the supermarket. Well it was like trying to cut thru a rock! It was frustrating. I was breaking into a heavy sweat! Suddenly the knife slipped and barely missed going thru my wrist! I picked up that squash and hurled it out into the back yard! It's rotting out there as I type.

In my mind, preparing one is tantamount to going out and killing your own turkey. But I haven't given up on spaghetti squash. I'm going to purchase a small hatchet at the hardware store. Let's hope I don't chop off any fingers!

Oh yeah, and Christmas dinner is just ahead.

REPAIRS, RED PEPPERS, & REVERSE MORTGAGES

Visiting developing countries is fun and interesting because you know when the visit is over you're returning to something much better. As for my notion of making one my future home, the reality was rather disenchanting. However, now that we've elected a man so vile, dangerous, and worthy of contempt as our president, I'm wondering if I made a big mistake!

Whether expatriating or remaining; there is one thing I must do first and that is fix up my house. It needs many repairs and less than half are now completed. But I must wait, because I'm hemorrhaging  money!

Plus I'm trying to save enough for another exploratory trip. I still might expatriate! Thanks to the dreadful outcome of the election, it's back on the table.

I'd like to find a job that I could do at home, one that would at least pay for my groceries. My Spam file is constantly full of those, but all are scams! I found a few that weren't, but the pay is paltry and sporadic.

After returning from Thailand, I asked my financial advisor about a reverse mortgage. Looking into it, he said it would be perfect for me because I have no one with whom to leave anything. (High five! I did something right, AGAIN!) However he wants me to put it off as long as possible, which I intend to do.

I've heard plenty of horror stories concerning those. One person told me he'd burn his house down for the insurance before he'd ever get one! Plus I have an elderly friend who signed on for one and they pulled all manner of shady numbers on her. She fell for their TV commercial. It was the one featuring the washed-up actor everyone thought was dead. And he may as well be if he'd shill for a crooked company like that! She ended up suing them. She won, but they put her thru hellfire!

Also she received help from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau which has cracked down and ended numerous predatory practices against consumers.This falls under the Dodd-Frank Act which Trump now seeks to eliminate!!! --Thank you, all of you SUCKERS who voted for this man!!!

If the Dodd-Frank Act is eliminated, I will be leery about a reverse mortgage. As it stands now there are things already that make me nervous. I've heard they can't take your house away. --- Oh yes they can!!!

If you ever become so poor as unable to pay your taxes and insurance, you'll be out on the street! Ditto if you are unable to maintain your home. As to maintenance, their standards may be different from mine. I let repairs slide to afford my 2 exploratory trips.

Plus I’d like to take another big, exotic trip, or two, or three before I taste the cosmic dust. I'd hate to return from vacation only to discover I no longer owned my home. Anyway, a reverse mortgage is on hold.

Last  January, after returning from Asia I was in terrible shape. It was a major health scare & a wake-up call! As much as I hate it, nearly everything I eat now is salad based. I'm incorporating as many colorful vegetables & fruits into my diet as possible.

I am not expecting to live forever. My goal is to avoid hospitals or a nursing home. Of course I can’t control everything! Just standing at my mailbox I could be hit by a car/stray bullet/comet/ lightning, etc. But what I can control I have an obligation to, out of respect for myself and my body. Plus there are benefits, I can fit into all my smaller size clothes, again!

The holidays are nearly upon us, but sadly, because of the election, I am in no frame of mind to celebrate.  Next January a sleazy con man takes office as our Commander in Chief!

ELECTION REFLECTION

Recently, we had the choice between a really bad candidate and the worse one ever to run for office. Hillary was just running for President, but Donald was running for King! Unfortunately, the latter won! And we are liable to end up with a $#)1@%! dictator!!!

Oh yeah, I'm constantly told about the safeguards that will prevent this from happening. But sleazy Don is the type to subvert these. He's already bragged about making politicians do whatever he wants with bribes.

Geez, can't someone poison him and his whore (PENCE not Melania) before he takes office. This man is VILE in neon letters and dangerously unqualified to for the office!

Calling Hillary crooked, coming from this nefarious creature is hillarious! OK, so the kettle is dirty, but the pot is caked with scum. Trump belongs in jail, not the White House! He's just a skillful flim-flam artist.

To those who voted for him to see change; OH YOU'LL SEE IT, you ignorant bastards & bitches, but it won't be anything good! You are sheep and he is a jackal! you are just too dim and deluded to see it!!! It's bad enough we've lost our moral compass. But how can anyone be stupid enough not to see thru Donald Trump. Just look at his history! He's so transparent!

I believe there is plenty more yet to emerge concerning him. Let's hope decency prevails and he ends up being impeached. And remember he's old, maybe he'll have a stroke and croak. (My fingers are crossed!) Plus I'm making a voodoo doll.

I remember the morning of the election. I got a phone call at 8:30 AM. I answered because I was meeting my friends Marie & Priscilla later for lunch and figured no one else would be calling me during that hour. Anyway, it was someone stating that I was a finalist for a million dollar prize in a sweepstakes I'd entered online. "I'm serious," the man said, "We need info, here."

I've received calls such as this before and was suspicious. Also I've won 4 sweepstakes prizes in my life and was never phoned. I asked him the name of the sweepstakes.

It was one I'd never heard of, much less entered!

"You probably have forgotten," he said.

I told him I was busy. "Can't you send me an email?" I asked.

"This will only take a few minutes," he assured me.

"I'm BUSY!" I hollered into the phone!

 He hung up.

After returning from lunch, I checked my Inbox. Guess what I found, an email stating I'd won $800,0000. -- but I needed to provide info. To be 100% sure, I consulted my Tech man, Jake.

"Bad news" he said.

Straight to Spam it went!

I see a parallel between my 8:30 AM phone call and Trump's win. Both appealed to base instincts; making big empty promises, while clandestinely seeking to take advantage. And from the election results I see we are Sucker Nation!!!

HOLDING MY NOSE & VOTING

There wasn’t a clothespin tight enough to block the stench as I sat gazing down at my absentee ballot!

I never imagined I’d be voting for Hillary Clinton. I have never liked this woman! And I can’t forget her condescending remark way back in the early 90’s about women who stay home, bake cookies, and attend Teas. These are things which have always given me great joy! Hey Hillary, maybe if you baked Bill some cookies you’d have caught on he was banging other women early enough to squelch it!

Plus she was in such vehement denial! Not to mention Hillary lashed out horribly at these women while her husband was given a free pass.

Then there was her stupid lie about dodging gunfire in Bosnia. Didn’t she notice all those cameras around her????

But despite the bimbo eruptions as they were called and other more serious failings, the Clinton Administration accomplished some remarkable things, such as ending the federal deficit and leaving us with a surplus, not to mention necessary environmental regulations.

Sadly, these things were undone by the dunce replacing them!

Also there was considerable economic growth under the Clinton Administration. And the Capital Gains Tax was changed thus enabling us to sell our house on the St. Lucie without taking a big hit. Because of this I have an income, now! I am NOT sucking on any taxpayer tit, here!

As for Hillary’s emails and Benghazi, past Presidents have done far worse things that were completely ignored.

However, I would prefer to be voting for Elizabeth Warren.

Then, there’s the OTHER choice in this election. Thank you, Tea Potty scumbags for giving us this odious candidate! It’s a mystery to me why anyone would vote for this orange blob of slime! To do so, requires ignoring a long list of facts as well as acres of red flags. The term “useful idiots” springs to mind. Anyway, he may very well be our next President due to minions of sycophantic slime balls!

I swear there are people in this country who would vote for Satan himself if he ran on the Republican ticket! This is a candidate willing to scapegoat and destroy innocent people to achieve his own ends.

I listened attentively to every debate as I hope everyone else did.

With all the serious issues in the world and this country, dumpy Donald spent more than a week after the first debate attacking some former beauty queen! Whenever I hear the term “Fat Pig” the first person that springs to mind is Donald Trump.

Instead of telling us exactly how thru his genius he’s going to miraculously fix all our problems, he’s bringing up Bill Clinton’s marital infidelities. This from a man who cheated on 2 ex-wives! His defense, “I wasn’t the President.” – As if that makes a difference! And I’ll bet he cheats on Melania, too, given his history.

And now HE has women he sexually abused coming forward! Why is anyone surprised?

To all you bible-thumping Christians voting for this man, you are hypocrites!!! -- The only reason he apologized is because he got caught and you are all suckers!

This person has a history of stiffing workers and don’t forget his scam university. To me, this equates to being a con and a cheat! Plus Mr. Smarter-than-everybody-else lost $916 million dollars in business failures in one year! Just imagine all the damage he could do to the U.S. economy!

I do not believe for one minute that Slimy Don cares about this country except for how he can use it to his advantage. This creep is all about ego! The White House is just another trophy to him; it matters not, if he doesn’t know how to run it, or cares to learn.

Also I would not put it past him to get us into a major conflict just to assure him an extra chapter in the history books. If people are killed, captured, or maimed it’s because they’re losers and expendable in his mind. Winners are the ones sending them off to war.

I remember him discussing George W. Bush’s reign. “Reign?” Yup, that’s what he said! Interesting choice of words! I thought we were a Republic NOT a Monarchy!

Trump is considered a dangerous clown in other countries, except for those run by dictators; the guys who can’t be voted out, which Trump admires and has said so! How can people be so stupid as not to see a flaming red flag here!

I would vote for Rocky the Flying Squirrel to keep Donald Trump out of the White House. If he wins, I will be ashamed to call myself a citizen of the United States!

Perhaps I should reconsider expatriating in that case. My friend Sue is planning a move to Mexico if he wins. I told her I’m going with her! However when he ruins our economy (and he will) it will affect me wherever I’m living! My principal from which I derive income is here.

The way society has devolved, why is anyone surprised that we’ve ended up with candidates such as these!!! Moralizing has become an anathema. Now it’s do your own thing (even if it’s sleazy, illegal, or just plain wrong) everyone is sooo scared of being judgmental. I say, moralize like hell and be judgmental, BE VERY JUDGMENTAL AND HOLD PEOPLE ACCOUNTABLE!!!