Helping a Friend

I've always been lucky and had nice, clear skin. Well, for the most part anyway. I did get a few zits from time to time, of course at "that time" of the month. If I had acne I may have considered taking something like accutane. A friend of mine has blackhead problems on his back so from time to time he asks me to clean his back for him and I do. I take a wash cloth and give his back a good washing with soap and water, then I squeeze the blackheads out for him. There is the occasional one that doesn't want to come out, too deep and dry, so I take my little jack knife and go digging. After all that is done I give another good wash with soap then one with no soap. I know, it's kind of gross, but it doesn't bother me and I am happy to be of service, to help someone out that needs help and he can't reach his own back to do this kind of thing so he really appreciates the help.

Quotes

America's present need is not heroics but healing; not nostrums but normalcy; not revolution but restoration.
~ Warren G. Harding

Our bodies are our gardens - our wills are our gardeners.

~ William Shakespeare

Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live.

~ Jim Rohn

Cel Phones

I recently got a new cel phone and upgraded my plan to include more features. I now have 200 daytime minutes, used to have 250 but it's okay to loose the 50 because I now have Unlimited Incoming calls, so don't have to use any of my precious minutes when someone calls me, only when I dial out now. I also now have Caller ID which I already had as well as Voice Mail which I didn't have before. Seems to me there's something else too that I'm forgetting about just now. I looked at some of the blackberry phones, and really liked them, but if I got one of them I had to pay for internet connection too, and I feel that with having 2 laptops on the internet I didn't need my phone to be too. I got a very nice phone that if I ever want to go online with it I can and for now I don't have to, it's a choice. This phone has lots of features my old phone didn't have so I am getting a lot more use out of it than just as a phone so this is a bonus.

I Had Surgery

In BC we don't, to the best of my knowledge, have a Medicare part D plan. We do have a Medical Plan though so most people have that to pay for their health care needs. Unfortunately it is not as good as it used to be and people now have to wait a very long time for many of their needs unless they have money to pay for the tests and procedures, then they can buy their way to the head of the line. Today I just had surgery on my left wrist and it was paid for by the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia because it was as a result of a motor vehicle crash I had just over 6 months ago. At the time I was taken to hospital by ambulance and the next day my wrist was operated on to put it back together, a metal plate and 9 screws were put in to hold it together. Today, due to irritation from the metal, it was all taken out. I also have had problems with one finger since the crash so that was also fixed today. Now to heal.

Spring is Here

This morning I went out to my truck to look for something I thought was out there. I didn't bother to put shoes on, just went in my bare feet. I got mud between my toes. Hmmm, guess I'm rushing the season. LOL. Spring is here complete with sunny skies and warm temperatures! Yesterday the high was 13°C and beautiful. The snow is gone and motorcycles are out and about again. I can hardly wait to have mine on the road again, but must wait. One week from today I have a second operation on the wrist that was broken when I was hit by a car. Also, work has not yet stated on building my new trike. I will be lucky if I am 'on the road' by May long weekend.

Have an AWESOME day... I plan to.

Quote

“If you don’t go after what you want, you’ll never have it. If you don’t ask, the answer is always no. If you don’t step forward, you’re always in the same place.”

- Nora Roberts

I Dream of Travel

With everything that has been happening in my life I am feeling so very tempted to just pack up and leave. Go travel for a few years, go check out Central and South America. Maybe when I got back I would better appreciate our government here, or maybe I'd never come back. If I had the money to back up my dreams, I would look into rv financing, or better yet, just buy a nice travel trailer outright, one with pop-out would be great as they expand to give you more room.... though most important to me would be that it's a "toy hauler" so I can take my trike along too. Can't go without the trike. I'd buy a newer truck to pull the trailer with and off I'd go to spend life as "Trella Trash", haha. If I was a man maybe I'd just hop onto the trike with some of my belongings tied to it and off I'd go to see the world, and I was tempted to do this even being a woman, but friends helped me to see how dangerous and crazy that would be. For now, I will just keep dreaming. I can't leave just yet anyway, too many things to take care of before I can go running off. Hey, dreaming is good. First comes the dream, then the dream comes to fruition.

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes.

~ Mohandas K. Gandhi

Nothing happens unless first we dream.

~ Carl Sandburg

Fighting Against Hell

The last few days have been pretty stressful. Due to being in a crash which was not my fault (I was hit by a car while riding my trike {motorcycle} in September) and the fact that I am on a disability pension I am now being given major run around. The insurance company is owned & operated by the provincial government, and my disability pension comes from a different department of the provincial government. Of course, I can't go into it all here, but I am getting major hassle/harassment from both offices and I am getting very tired of it. I suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) from being suddenly hit, flying trough the air, hitting a car with my body, bouncing off and landing on then sliding along the street downtown in our city and at some point during this sustaining injuries one of which has cost me partial use of my left hand. And yet these government agencies are both doing all they can to make my life a living hell. I am starting to think it is time to retain a lawyer. I had not planned to get a lawyer, or at least to wait and see how things panned out over the next year or two before I made that decision. Now it seems like I might just really need some legal advice, someone of power to stand up for me. It's a sad situation when our own government does it's best to harm the people that I believe they are supposed to be helping.

Feeling Like Spring

My favorite time of year is Spring!! It is a delight to have warmer temperatures and to see the snow melting away and running down my driveway in little rivers. When I left the house shortly after 11am today my thermometer said it was 6°C. I just looked at the Environment Canada Weather Office website and they say it is currently 9.0°C in my city, though I don't know if it is the correct temperature for my location. It will be very close if not exact. The sky is cloudy and I wish it was sunny though I am at least happy it's warm and melting. My pellet stove is turned down to 1, the lowest setting it has and is keeping my home around 70°F. The thermometer I have in my living room shows both C & F, but from here I can only see the F as it's the larger numbers and I'm not going to get up to go read it just now. I am about to go out for a drive to a town near by and visit a friend. I will enjoy the spring weather and the visit.

My New Jewelry

On Thursday I checked my mail and was happy to find a package I had been waiting for. It was 2 bracelets to replace the ones I had returned to the company. These are magnetic with far infra red so are healing bracelets. I wanted to wear 1 on my wrist and 1 on the opposite ankle for optimum healing, so I took these to a local jeweler to get 2 links taken out of one and put into the other one. While waiting for him to finish with another customer and to do the work, I of course looked at all the beautiful jewelry he has for sale. Engagement & Wedding rings, class rings, family rings, earrings, necklaces... all shiny and beautiful. I am just like a crow, attracted to anything that sparkles or shines so I most enjoyed my time there. All the diamonds, birth stones, other precious and semi precious stones delight me. I paid the jeweler $8 for his less-than-5-minutes work and left with my bracelets on. I had been having a day from hell and this helped a lot to make me feel better.

Bits & Pieces

Here are some bits & pieces about me &/or my life &/or my thoughts:

- I am watching a movie on TV: Blind Trust, with Jessica Capshaw, Art Hindle, Chad Willet. It was filmed in Montreal in 2007. A woman accused of murder is defended by a lawyer who's in on the crime.
- I have a pot of tea steeping on the hot plate across the room. Can hardly wait to drink some. It's Georgia Peach Rooibos tea, to which I will add Stevia and Milk.
- I am not interested in accountancy finance jobs, though am sure many people are. At this time in my life I am not interested in any jobs, to tell the truth.
- A gal that knows someone I know contacted me the other day about birds. She heard I love birds and she is moving to the US and can't take her birds along so wanted to know if I will take them in. I am very tempted as one is a hand tamed male Cockatiel and the other is a male budgie and they live together, bonded. I very much love birds and 'tiels are awesome, I should know as I already have 5 of them (1 female, 4 males). Males make far more noise than females so I would be more into taking in a female. I have so many critters now and just have to stop taking them in... and yet...
- I am somewhat nervous about the upcoming surgery on my wrist to remove the metal plate & 9 screws that were put in when the wrist was broken in September 2010. I will be glad when it's over and done.
- I need to get on my exercise bike and get moving.

Passing Time

Sometimes during the winter I dance with depression. The cold temperatures and many, many dull, gray days. We know that spring will eventually come, yet it seems like it never will as those dull gray days go on and on and on. Sometimes I tend to stay home a lot more due to snowy &/or icy roads. When this sort of thing happens, I get 'cabin fever' and feel like I'll go crazy if I don't get out, then finally, in a day or two, things change and I can get out again. As soon as the snow is gone so I can bring my utility trailer up the hill to the house, I plan to take on of my armchairs to the dump. It's old and broken, has outlived its allotted time. It came to me free through Freecycle, more than 2 years ago though I don't remember how much more. The other chair in my living room is a heated, vibrating recliner chair which is awesome, though the vinyl has cracks in the arms so not so nice as it once was. This also came through Freecycle. Face it, folks, I am in need of new cabin furniture. To be honest though, I have too many bird cages in this room to be able to fit furniture in for me to sit on. I must figure out something here, get rid of something to make more room. Maybe my computer desk needs to go, it's big and takes up lots of space, yet it does provide lots of storage with its cupboards and drawers... hmmmm. Anyway, the weather is warming up and spring is just around the corner. Doors & windows will soon be open and 'stuff' will start to move out the doors and off to new homes.

PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

I have been diagnosed with this disorder... and it is, as much as I dislike labels, a relief to admit it and to know that I am not going crazy. After the crash in September, every time I closed my eyes I saw the blue car suddenly in front of me again and relived the moments of impact... the moment when the car and my trike impacted and the moment my body, having flown up from the trike, slammed into the car. In time, it passed so I could close my eyes and sleep again without this happening, though still it was something of a fight to keep that movie from replaying. Even now I can close my eyes and, if I allow it, I can see the details of the crash and the aftermath of it. I still wonder who the guy was that helped me...well, there were 2 very nice men that came and helped me until the paramedics and ambulance attendants arrived, and it would be nice to know who both of them were so I could say 'thank you'... and yet I would really like to know who the one was that was wearing a skullcap type helmet and an orange on black Harley jacket. Yes, there are a lot of things that were amazingly clear and stay that way in my mind.

One day in January, I was driving my truck down a street in town and a small blue car was driving towards me. Suddenly I saw this car cross the center line and enter into my lane!!! My heart flew into my throat, to say the least, and as I blinked I saw the car was back in it's own lane. I realized in that moment that it had never left it's correct lane, but I had just had a flash back to September 10 when there really was a little blue car that suddenly came into my lane making a left turn... and we collided.

There have been many times when I stressed really easy since the crash, even over not being able to figure out how to use a new cell phone. I really shocked my friend Dan when he saw me flip out over the phone. I am usually so calm and so able to figure almost anything out. He took the phone and figured it out then showed me how to use it. It was simple!! This is not a difficult phone to use, but I was on stress overload and just couldn't deal.

I have never doubted that I will ride my trike again starting this year, once the new one is built and I recover from the upcoming 2nd surgery on my wrist.... never that I would allow myself to think about anyway, until the last couple days. Now I know it may not be as easy as I want it to be and that stuffing the feeling down where I don't acknowledge it isn't going to help. I need to do something about it. I need to have counseling. I am looking forward to starting that counseling as soon as possible... and yet part of me is dreading it too. It would be easier to just take the drugs my doctor has offered to give me, easier but not the way I want to go. I don't like taking meds.