GOOD BYE SUMMER 2019, YOU SUCKED

Soon it will be over and can't happen fast enough; this was one of the worst! Usually summer zooms by, but this miserable one just seemed to drag on and on.

UGH!!! I will always remember it as one of INJURY (foot) PHYSICAL PAIN, (foot & tooth) STRESS (major hurricane threat) ENORMOUS OUT-OF-THE-BLUE EXPENSES (dental work, hurricane boarding, & 2 plumbing emergencies), and a bad haircut to boot!  Also included was much frustration and angst in trying to publish a book I ghostwrote after an unfortunate 2 year delay, along with numerous other things that I never blogged about. Be grateful I spared you!

However you may not always be so fortunate, this is my place to vent, so if this annoys you, stop reading right now and go away!

My idea of a wonderful summer is a quiet, serene, uneventful one without people noise or drama. I've already experienced enough of the latter for 10 life times! I prefer being alone cocooning in the air conditioning. When the weather cools, if ever (this is Florida & there's global warming) I'll feel like going out again. But even then, I can only stand people in small doses.

I love summer nights at home enjoying engrossing and sometimes just gross movies, occasionally with popcorn or ice-cream. But now, I remember why I stopped recording stuff on network TV after I got the Starz/Showtime package. I had it for a decade and lost it last spring when it became too expensive. After all the commercials are zapped, a two & a half hour movie often becomes 90 minutes! I'm constantly reaching for the remote. And worse, I hate staring at an advertisement during an entire film! It's distracting and irritating.

Thanks to a generous friend, I now have a DVD player and rent movies from Redbox. I'm glad it's an option.

Every morning, it seems I wake at 4:00 AM and am unable to get back to sleep. Then at 5:30 AM I get up and nap throughout the day.

I should be grateful at least the hurricane swerved east and missed. But it's still peak season and early.

However I am proud of myself for losing my Hurricane Dorian weight. It came off fast, too! I was expecting the power to go out, so I ate as much as possible from my fridge & garage freezer. Otherwise it would all end up on the curb. Huge breakfasts and enormous dinners were the norm for a week. Afterward, clothes weren't fitting.

But now they do. I'm back to a size 8 my fighting weight! Yay!!!

I miss my days of exotic foreign travel, it's always fun visiting other countries in distant far away continents, but the way things are going, any future ones will be under the Medical Tourism category.

I'm constantly cutting back, while the price of everything keeps going up! I may come to regret not expatriating. However it's not off the table! But if it comes to that, it will be tantamount to a shotgun marriage. After my exploratory trips, I learned that the Third World isn't the paradise for retirees on a fixed income those international living publications make it out to be.

Fall will be full of expensive dental appointments including a tooth extraction and implant. And I'm living in a dark boarded-up house until November.

Despite everything, I'm mostly happy. I must keep reminding myself of the way things used to be, all those many years when I wasn't.

MAYOR, YOU DON'T SPEAK FOR ME

My oh my, our current mayor has gone national by publicly attacking San Francisco on its stance against the National Rifle Association. According to our delusional mayor the NRA is "an extraordinary defender of America's constitutional civil rights" his words. Never mind it has repeatedly proven to be a domestic terrorist organization that must be ended.

Needless to say, our mayor is a member of the NRA!

Now I am not against anyone owning guns. One in the house for protection is a good idea. I'm not even against hunting rifles although I abhor the practice. However no one needs a military assault type weapon unless they are up to no good! And the idea of arming teachers is one of the stupidest ideas I've ever heard! I picture more innocent people being killed in the crossfire.

Our mayor used official city letter head in his criticism, as if all of Vero Beach is behind him! A San Francisco Examiner columnist cleverly upbraided our mayor and rightly so. However due to the letter head he also had some not-so-nice things to say about Vero Beach, my hometown of the last 20 years.

Ok, I'll admit Vero Beach is a Trump turd stronghold! Many people here think Trump walks on water when he's actually more like a fat chunk of excrement floating in a sewer!

I know there are many others in Vero Beach who feel as I do! I've marched in protests with them against Trump's policies. We received numerous honks of support as well as the one finger salute.

Our mayor is also an ophthalmologist, in fact, the same one who performed cataract surgery in both of my eyes.

Because I am alone, I needed their shuttle to pick me up and drive me home after the surgeries. During my second trip the driver praised Trump all the way to the Eye Institute. I told him that for the sake of our country, I hoped someone would shoot Trump! Which I'm sure didn't endear me to him. Fortunately, coming home I was assigned a different driver.  Politics were never discussed.

Our mayor called the San Francisco Examiner columnist's response "elitist". I could say the same about him! I found this ophthalmologist more than a bit arrogant. For my next eye exam, I will be taking my business elsewhere!

A CLOSE BRUSH WITH A MONSTER

A monster out to destroy me, others, and everything we own. Like nearly every other denizen of the Treasure Coast I was in a constant state of panic mingled with exhaustion. For what seemed like a week every meteorologist showed a Cat 5 Hurricane Dorian coming ashore over Vero Beach on their chart!

Out of habit I began stocking my storm pantry back in June, little was left to buy. Also around that time I purchased the Bell & Howell Light Bar to add to my hurricane lamp collection which is good to have anyway. Even under perfect conditions, I've never lived in a place that experiences as many power outages as Vero Beach!

Always, it's a problem finding someone to board me up. However this time a neighborhood Realtor emailed the name of a man willing to do it. But yikes, the cost was $600.! -- I paid $40 back in 2004!!! Unfortunately I had no choice. Now I plan to stay boarded until November! It's only the start of peak hurricane season and I can't afford to keep repeating this!

The expense could not have happened at a worse time! Just the week before, I learned I need a dental implant among other work and I'm going to be out $1000's. I waited months for an appointment at the sliding scale clinic; I desperately need that 15 per cent discount. Unfortunately the clinic doesn't do implants. UGH!!!

But that had to wait until after the hurricane.

I moved everything of value downstairs and packed several suitcases in the event my house became unlivable. It's devastating to think of everything I've accumulated over the years being destroyed. I own few things of monetary value. However each of my possessions has a memory attached making every one a treasure.

Dorian a slow moving storm, was now forecast to hit us on Wednesday. Hopefully, it would strike during daytime. I would be able to see well enough to do damage control. Also I could sleep in my own bed the night before rather than the floor of my downstairs bathroom which is my safe room.

Marie, my snowbird friend in Connecticut said she'd call every day until the power went out along with my landline. She was true to her word! And my friend Rose said she'd drive over to check on me after the storm passed. Both are wonderful friends!

Sunday night I watched a movie titled Between Heaven and Earth, a true story about a Vietnamese woman. As a child, her village was burned to the ground. During her teens she was raped, beaten, tortured with electricity, also staked to a pole near an ant hill, her legs coated with honey, and for added measure a snake was dropped down her blouse! And there's more that I won't go into. Watching this, made me feel like a wimp for freaking out over a hurricane!

Then I remembered the photos of Mexico Beach from last year's one. It looked like a bomb blast!!! My fears were valid!!! And Dorian was now doing likewise to the Bahamas.

Almost everyone living in Florida has been to the Bahamas at least once. The man who boarded my house said he had been there 50 times or more. The thought of the destruction, death, and shattered lives there is wrenching.

Cat 5 and 4 hurricanes used to be a rarity. Sadly, with global warming (which fools deny) they are becoming common. It's anyone's guess exactly where a hurricane will come ashore.

An arrogant, argumentative man on Facebook (whom I've since unfriended) claimed that no hurricane dared to hit since he moved here and no one should worry. Then came Irma in 2017 projected to hit us as a Cat 5 or 4. This guy ran like a scared rabbit to the center of the state! The hurricane shifted farther west at the last moment striking his hotel, another example of a man's big mouth  biting him in the butt!

As fate would have it, all of us here on the Treasure Coast were fortunate again this time. Dorian just skirted us. Not once did I lose power which was a miracle in itself.  Air-conditioning in a boarded up house is a blessing.

Thursday the hurricane had passed, mail & newspaper delivery resumed. I stepped onto my driveway to sweep debris. The heat & humidity were so heavy it felt as if someone had dropped a blanket over me. But my home remained intact, that was most important.

However, next time the result could be quite different. All you can do is prepare for the worst as best you can.