Monthly Archives: July 2012

Repost “Over Active What?”

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(Mr. Wonderful is recovering from surgery, and needs my special attention, consequently a  repost that many of you may have missed and others will still enjoy.)

Aging & Attitude

Overactive bladder is a scary phrase for someone my age.  According to Dr. Paul Donohue, there are several ways to wet your pants.  His daily column in the local News Journal Newspaper answered a reader’s concerns and the good news; you can retrain your bladder, and or take medicine.

Leakage or stress incontinence is loss of urine when swinging a golf club, laughing, and sneezing. Laughter and golf may not go together. If you anticipate a good time golfing, tee up with pads, not knee, the other kind. Perhaps you have seen Whoopi Goldberg’s TV advertisements. Another option is to be a straight-faced golfer committed to not laughing.

Urge incontinence is the other overactive bladder condition. Early symptoms (in my non-medical opinion) are, fear that a bathroom is not readily available when needed, and using a bathroom when you do not have to, resulting in bladder shrinkage.

Dr. Donohue states that the medicines Vesicaare, Enablex, Detrol, Ditropan, and Sanctura help control the urge resulting from bladder contractions. He suggests retraining the bladder by delaying use of the bathroom for five minutes for a week and gradually increasing the time before “going” until you are “going” every two hours or more. This process may result in doing the pee-pee dance, but it does work.

He also recommends avoiding alcohol, carbonated beverages, milk, milk products, honey, sugar and artificial sweeteners during training periods. This man is no fun.

Dr. Donohue goes on to describe a more barbaric invasive procedure, called InterStim no one wants to talk about, although it does stimulate a nerve somewhere in the lower body.

Thank you Dr. Paul Donohue. It is comforting to know there are options. We can take medicine or give up my favorites, wine and ice cream, and stay home to retrain our bladder.

                                                                      ….just saying

A Morning Walk On The Beach

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Aging & Attitude

   The sound, faint in the distance, gathers intensity, as I walk closer. I take my shoes off, and listen to the crescendo, an orchestra’s percussion section; a drum roll of rapidly boiling water rising above a pot edge with white peaks cascading down the side.  I inhale the salty sea air and watch cotton ball clouds hug the horizon as I walk.

The waves have an agenda, moving in shifts, and as the percussion section works its wonder toward the shore, the horns step in, and trumpets whip the water into peaks of sweet cream. Violins and harps join the frolic near the shoreline and linger as the residue changes to beer foam.

I pickup my pace, let the water tickle my toes and remove my hat because the sun is hiding behind a group of clouds. The waves roll back and reveal a pink coquina rock naturally shaped like an alligator, with a twisted tail, protruding neck, and eyes bulged for a better view. The rock earns a lingered look.

Today the sand is speckled with small sea shells scattered above the high tide line like bathers on a popular beach.

The birds do their rapid two-step to imagined music in the air.

A single crane maintains an elegant stance, ready to do a ballerina dance as I leave the beach wishing I had a camera and reduced to words.

                                                                             …. Just Saying

Zero Ending Birthdays

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happy-birthday-ornament-backgrounds-wallpapers

Aging & Attitude

A dear writing friend, Marsha, recently celebrated a  zero ending birthday or a “big one” and shared her thoughts about the occasion. She offers an interesting perspective I think you’ll enjoy.

Zero Ending Birthdays

                                      by Guest Blogger, Marsha

Birthday Blog

 (to no one in particular – just because I feel like writing a blog)

I recently celebrated one of those “milestone” birthdays. For the last ten years there has been just a one digit change to the years of life number, but now all of sudden both digits have changed! That comfort zone has been lost to a whole new era of unfamiliar and intimidating numbers. Plus there is this new theory that you are actually ten years younger than your age now, based on the wonders of baby boomers living longer than their predecessors, which presents an entirely new issue of confusion.

Graduating to the new number has also brought to light the birthday cards designed for the consumer to address this milestone. And for some reason, many well wishers seem to think they need to send a card with the new number boldly emblazoned on the front of the card. I hadn’t received a number card before that I could recall, although I probably did for the big 40 (can’t really remember at this point – and it was probably a funny card), as we see a lot of decorations available for this particular birthday milestone in the party stores.

But my recent birthday seems to have prompted a bevy of different salutations that shouted “you should feel excited to be alive at a time when you are really free to live”,” liking what you have become”, or “ this day is to celebrate the beginning of the most beautiful years of your life.”

Seriously – does this make me feel good? Is this a happy birthday greeting?

I’m sorry, but I find this disconcerting and almost downright rude. Do people really think we want to hear this stuff? Isn’t it enough that we are in the quagmire of not yet qualifying for Social Security, dealing with healthcare insurance issues and grappling with where to invest our hard earned retirement money?

You have probably guessed my new number by now.

Please understand that I don’t mind the aging process. I can live with that. What I object to is being reminded that my double digit birthday is a landmark that is being shouted from the rooftops by these ridiculous cards that come our way at a time when you would rather celebrated the day with a simple “Happy Birthday” or a piece of cake……

As my friend Claudia would say

                            ….Just saying

Bored On The Fourth Of July

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 Photo: For guaranteed fireworks on the Fourth.

Aging & Attitude

We have been to the beach in the morning, a barbeque in the afternoon and are walking to the Town Green for evening fireworks.  Mr. Wonderful spies a stone wall spot, wide enough for two fannies, on the Green and inquires of the boy sitting next to his family, “Are these taken?”

The space is available; we sit and attempt to get comfortable on the hard rock.

The kid has a sour face and being a Grandma, I poke him with my elbow and say in a friendly way, “You don’t look happy.”

“I’m bored,” is his response.

“What’s wrong with being bored?”  I ask. “It isn’t an illness; people get bored, great thoughts are given birth by boredom.”

His perplexed look is memorable, not rude and I continue talking. “How long have you been bored?”

“A few minutes,” he mumbles but sits up, straightens his back.

I have his attention, now what to do with it. “You must have an exciting life if you’ve only been bored a few minutes.”

“Actually I do, have you ever heard of Malaysia?”

I nodded my head yes.

“I was born in Malaysia, before my parents got married, then we moved to California. They got married and I have two brothers. Now we live in Georgia.” He informs me with animation.

His mother’s glance in my direction confirms my inclination not to ask questions. I lean forward to see his brothers who look nothing like him.

Thinking, better bring the conversation back to boring I say, “Boredom could be time for your brain to rest, or think. You seem thoughtful, how old are you?”

“Why don’t you guess?” is his baited reply.

I study his intelligent eyes and sudden smile, and decided to err on the side of older. “Thirteen?”

“Gee, most people say ten or eleven, I’m twelve.” He answers not hiding his pleasure.

“Seems you’re a thinker, does your school encourage thinking?” He knows my point without further explanation.

“Well you see, mostly you have to have the right answer, but the teacher lets us fight but everyone yells and I…

I interject, “we called it discussions or debates, and the yelling, heated or passionate, like John Adams and Thomas Jefferson did in Congress.”

His mind fast, forwards, “Well, have you heard of  the Marshal Art Taekwondo? See I’m a black belt, the, master is very strict with me, well, like if I don’t do something I have to do push ups, because I will be like a  leader, like keeping peace. Well, it’s like teaching etiquette, or right, have you heard about etiquette?”

“Like a Benjamin Franklin?” I ask, and watch him absorb my comment as the first fireworks explode across the sky.

We are both quiet for the next half hour and enjoy the special effects of our conversation.

Leaving, I ask, “What is your name?”

“Joshua,” he answers with a smile of perfect teeth.

“Joshua, thanks for talking with me.”

I want to say, but don’t, “I’ve heard of discipline and etiquette and feel hopeful for America, you have too.”

The thought lingers in the air.

. . . . Just saying

Help and The Help Button

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Aging & Attitude

Computers are great. I personally have a love hate relationship with them. I feel in the dark and constantly ask, “How would I know that?” Use the help button is the answer.

Is the help button helpful?

Depends, if you ask the right question.

Case in point, I wanted to change the tired saying, “Do a Good Deed Daily,” at the bottom of my email to “just saying”.

I put the message in, surely, I can get it out.

I attempted to use Yahoo help search, typed in delete a note or message, and got nowhere.

After an hour of trying, I emailed Yahoo Mail Customer Care and praise the Lord received instructions from Tito, who told me what I really wanted to do, change the signature and the seven steps necessary to make the change.

Exhausted I moved the email to a Save Folder for later.

In the meantime, I had other dilemmas. My wireless stopped working.

Do you know how the internet works? You can watch the utube video; There and Back Again: A Packet’s Tale – How doe…By worldscifest| 1 video for a quick study.

I attempted to restore my wireless using troubleshooting, checked and double checked the settings, but was still off-line, so I picked up the phone and called Dell for help.

The customer service representative was diligent, but unsuccessful in restoring my service, and finally enlisted a supervisor to discover there is an on/off wireless button on a Dell computer. How would I know this?

Mine had been accidentally turned off.

When our General Electric digital camera worked intermittently, I read the manual to rectify the problem but could not, then called customer service and asked to mail the camera back, it seemed defective.

They telephoned, said the camera was tested, not broken and would be returned it to me.

It still worked intermittently.

I went to Radio Shack to buy a new card, and told the sales person my tale of woe. He reinserted the card and return the camera to me saying, “It’s fine.”

Exacerbated I exclaimed, “It wasn’t working a minute ago!” I opened the flap, took out the card, and reinserted it.

The sales person smiled, “It didn’t  click.”

“Didn’t click. What click?” I inquired.

Evidently, the card is not fully in until it clicks.

How would I know that?

Recently my friend,  Christine, of Words etc, solved a few computer issues for me using the help button and restored the notion the help button is helpful.

However using the help button involves viewing the instructions and the annoying list of how to do that, gives me a headache.

  • Cut & paste the seven steps, in word and print the instructions.
  • Memorize seven steps
  • Scribble abbreviations on a scrap of paper
  • Restore down

I have a better solution.

Use two electronic devices, one to view the help instructions and the other to make the changes or corrections.

Since I have a wireless laptop and a kindle fire, I put them side by side.

On the Kindle Fire, type change signature in Yahoo Help and open Yahoo Mail on the laptop.

Now the instructions are in plain view and I can make the changes, no problemo (I’m part Italian).

                                                                ….Just saying