Wasn’t there a game show way back that you had to guess the password? 

It’s a big white room.

It smells like medicine.

It’s going to hurt.

The answer:  an operating room or operation. 

Last Friday, I had rotator cuff surgery on my left shoulder.  It is with great effort I type this without hitting the wrong keys.  I have three holes in my upper left shoulder.  Contrary to my MRI, I did have a small tear in my rotator cuff which is why, for two years, it’s hurt like you know what.  I guess I waited a tid-bit too long before I did anything about it.

Prior to being rolled in, I attempted to watch this Aurora Bay OR video of my arm procedure.  When the doc in the film stabbed the knocked out dude’s shoulder with a scapel and the patient moaned–I was done and I couldn’t watch it.  In any case, this could have been me laying there.  Hey, in fact it was me on Friday. 

Here’s hoping my spring is operation free.  I’ve had it with hospital gowns.

For the strong stomached:  OR-Live Rotator Cuff Surgery

And when the moderator in the film says to try physical therapy, anti-inflamatories, cortizone injections first– (BUZZER)  The answer is:  Been there, done that.

I visited a dear friend last week, fellow author–Gloria Dale Skinner.  She has a lovely condo on the beach and she’s such a gracious host.  I was so happy to arrive just in time to be one of the first to toast to her new three book deal to write more historicals.  We have a lovely visit and enjoyed talking and drinking wine.  The first day I got there, we had a great dinner at a restaurant called FIREFLY.  Interesting–that’s the title of my second published book.  The second day dawned with overcast skies.  We weren’t sure if the day would be good enough to take her boat out for a lunch-time spin.  But the captain assured us, no problem.  I had a wonderful time with the ladies Gloria chose to go out with us.  They were so much fun to visit with.  In my next life, I think I want a Southern accent.  Just as we were coming back to Gloria’s home, the sun broke free and the day promised to be sunshiny. 

Back at the condo (Gloria’s second home), we got ready for dinner and I noticed that nobody was on the beach.  I would have been considering where I live, we were having school closures because of the snow.  Well, I guess the Floridians knew something I didn’t–within hours, we had gale force winds and the weatherman declared a tornado warning until 1:00am.

But the next day was incredibly sunny and just delightful.  The beach was gorgeous and the temp promised to be in the mid-60s.  Oh my–in my world, that would be a slice of heaven.  But again, nobody on the beach.  So what’s up with that Panama City Beach people?  Your weather was to die for.  I’ll trade ya.  You come here and shovel my walkway and I’ll sit on your sugar-white beach and enjoy the ocean breeze and sun.  Sigh.

People!  It’s 10:00am and the day is FABULOUS!!!  Why aren’t you out walking on this amazing beach?!

Gloria and I standing in her backyard after a wonderful lunch with friends on the boat.

I’m back home now.  The night I arrived home, it was 18-degrees.  Oh joy.  And the following day, we got seven inches of snow dumped on us.  For the most part, it’s melting into slush, but now we have frozen slush.  The temp this morning on my car registered like 22-degrees when I took my step-daughter to school. 

How many more days of winter do we have . . . . . . . . . . . . . ?