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Saturday, December 31, 2016

MY 2016 IN THE REAR VIEW MIRROR


Christmas morning 2015 I awoke sweating from a horrific dream! I was in Hell! I was led thru a dark tunnel by a hooded figure. It opened into an enormous cavern with gigantic flames blazing at the opposite end. Another larger hooded figure loomed off to one side its back to me. Slowly, it began turning in my direction.

I don't want to talk to you, I thought. Then I awoke. It left me shaken and I was sweating. December 2016 was a particularly hot one. I was wearing summer clothes on Christmas Day.

The new year began with my 65th birthday shortly afterward, followed by a wondrous and amazing private tour of Thailand that I will forever treasure. The trip required 7 stressful, even downright torturous airplane flights (3 within Thailand itself) but the destination was worth it.

Other than Thailand, 2016 was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

I returned in terrible shape and suffering pain! I do not have Insurance, and according to Dr. Google, I was in the preliminary stages of an impending heart attack and also diabetic! This sent me into a panic! I went to the clinic with the sliding scale fee to arrange an appointment. I described my symptoms and was instructed to go to the Emergency Room. Since the hospital does not operate on a sliding scale basis, I went home.

I scheduled a session with Life Line Screenings for tests as well as an appointment with the clinic. Both were unable to see me for several months. In the meantime, I drastically changed my diet to all fruits, vegetables, & lean proteins. My weight plummeted fast! Soon I was down to 118 lbs. The pain and swelling in my feet & calves began to diminish.

My test results came as big relief! Other than neuropathy, (nerve damage in my feet) I was healthy. However the doctor at the clinic insisted that I maintain the diet.

Despite the fact I would have affordable health care in another country, I decided expatriating wasn't for me. No place is better than here. But now that sleazy Don and his co-whores are taking over the country, I am reconsidering. Plus HERE is expensive and getting more so all the time!

I'm in the process of all those costly and numerous repairs to my house that I'd put off to afford my exploratory trips. My badly cracked driveway has finally been replaced.

In 2017 my house will need to be repainted and rotting wood replaced.  But first, I must wait until I recover financially. 2016 was a year I was hit from all sides with sudden, unexpected expenses for which I didn't budget!

Among these was hurricane Matthew! A category 4 that missed a direct hit on the Treasure Coast by the skin of our teeth! I gladly sent $100 donation to the Pastor who came up from Port St. Lucie along with my Tech man Jake, to board up my windows. Without them, things could have ended tragically had Matthew hit directly as the charts predicted. My windows were kept boarded until after hurricane season ended.

The outside of my house was covered in mold from all the rain. In November, the man I hired to remove it said he'd unboard me for $100. I was tired of living inside a dark cavern so I agreed to that price. -- I won't go into all the other expenses (& there are plenty) that came out of the blue. That's just life!

As to Matthew, I predicted this hurricane in my tea leaves and I have a witness! This storm I saw in my teacup could also be a foretelling of Donald Trump's win. I can only envision upsets and terrible things coming! Probably far worse than anything that happened in 2016, for both me and our country.

2016 was also the year a friendship ended, badly. Two others developed cracks and repairing them may not be possible.

I'm someone who hates drama and goes out of the way to avoid it. But it always finds a way of hunting me down. However I will deal with it and I'll survive.

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